Tech Notes

I want to show you guys how to easily navigate between user accounts in google chrome. You may have multiple users on one computer who have chrome accounts, or you may personally have multiple accounts. This is the easiest way to use multiple accounts and to avoid having to sign in and out all day. If you have any questions please give me a call or send me and email and I can come help:) YouTube Video

Evernote is an awesome tool for keeping thoughts and ideas organized. Its like my brain and filing cabinet online. I can access it from any device (it syncs in the cloud) so I can keep notebooks about topics like grocery lists, travel, meetings, finances, anything. Check it out or let me show you how I use evernote to simplify my life! Another awesome addition to evernote, is the evernote web clipper extension found in the Chrome WebStore. This allows you to clip any webpage or article on the internet to your evernote. For example, if you find something you could use for a lesson you are teaching just clip it and label it and when the time comes it is available in your evernote. Check out this little video. http://evernote.com/webclipper/guide/

This is a free and safe way to send text messages to students and parents without allowing for two way communication. You go in and sign up for an account. There are letters/posters to advertise the service and notify parents to sign up. They text a code to a number provided to subscribe to your texts. You then can access the site on your computer or mobile device and compose your text which is then pushed to all subscribers from the system (not your phone number.) There is no option for two way communication, these are just notifications. Also within the system you can see who has subscribed to your service and who is receiving the notifications. Very cool tool, if you need any help setting up or you have any questions let me know.

I don't know about y'all but I have so many online accounts and profiles that I use daily to manage my life and my work. I have often wished that some of these programs could communicate with one another to make my life easier. Well look no further, today I stumbled upon the coolest thing I have seen in a while. www.IFTTT.com The whole idea is that you use this website to authorize your accounts to work together for your benefit by creating custom recipes. For example, here is a shot of my recipes I created today. First if I star an email in gmail, then it will automatically make that email into a note in evernote. Also, I created a recipe to automatically tweet the title and url for any blog post in blogger. The possibilities are endless. Tell me how you are using ifttt.com 

Class Dojo is a tool teachers can use to help improve and manage behaviors in their classrooms. Through the use of a computer, laptop, phone or tablet teachers and students can track positive and negative behaviors. Students receive timely and visual feedback to help keep them on track. Documentation is then kept in real time to access at any time. It can even generate an email to parents to save teachers time in communicating a child's daily behaviors. Ask me about Class Dojo or tell me how it is working for you.

my brain that is. It really is amazing what summer time does to my brain. It's cruel really. I start off totally ready to turn everything off and just re-boot. And I have done that better this summer than any I can remember. But as always, around the end of July, it comes back in a mean way. And by 'it' I mean the can't sleep, can't turn off the thinking, super thinking, planning over drive mode.... and just a few days ago it began.  I mean sure, I spent a few days in Austin getting google-y but other than that this summer has been pure relaxation. Lots of down time with the kids, by the pool, reading for fun, enjoying my family and I enjoyed every minute of it.  But I truly live for the beginning of the school year. I always have. I love getting the fresh start year after year. I love new pencils and planners and organizing stuff. And this year my brain is in super overdrive preparing for a new position in a new district.  I don't know why but the ...

Skype allows for online video chat between two users. There are many ways to use skype in your classroom. Many authors offer free skype chats for your students to interview authors and sometimes read to your students, you can also chat with students in other classrooms from around the world. You can also use skype for parent conferences and your own professional development. Tell me about how you use skype in your classroom. LINKS: Authors who skype with classes for free: http://www.katemessner.com/authors-who-skype-with-classes-book-clubs-for-free/ Yellowstone National Park Rangers skype https://education.skype.com/projects/2237-yellowstone-national-park-rangers-can-skype-with-classrooms https://education.skype.com/projects/2237-yellowstone-national-park-rangers-can-skype-with-classrooms