Instagram/Gamification in the Classroom

Loved this conference! They energy was apparent from the beginning starting with the keynote speaker, not to mention 1,000 + educators standing and singing "living on a prayer" at the top of their lungs! While their were a few breakout sessions that were very general and/or basic, the majority of sessions I attended were very informative. Specifically, Michael Matera who presented on different aspects of incorporating online games with learning. I remember going into the presentation thinking this session would light and fun. I left thinking that I just witnessed one of the great thinker's in modern education. He's a great Twitter follow as well.

EDUbreakout is more than just a box.

EDUbreakout kept me moving and thinking! What a great way to use the 4C's.  :)
What is it? Talk about having a box in the middle of the room with several different locks. It takes communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity to gather different clues and solve the codes that will unlock the mysterious box and leave the students astonished.

Citizen Science

My favorite take away was citizen science which is crowdsourced research. It is an amazing way to get students interested in science, and to connect with researchers from around the world. Researchers benefit when everyday citizens help collect and/or analyze data. Participants of all ages benefit by learning new concepts and contributing to actual scientific research. Click the links below for more information.

Citizen Science

SciStarter

A site you have to check out is called GeoGuessr!  The player gets dropped down into a random area of the world or you can choose a specific country, state, etc...  Based on the geographical features, people, cars, ... using the 360-degree views, the player tries to determine where they are at.  The game can be played alone or against other people.  Check it out!

graphite.org -- Teacher Rated Resources, Apps, Websites, and more

Hello all!  I thought I'd try this out with my very first blog post (ever!).

My favorite take-away from ICE this year was a website called Graphite (graphite.org).  This site makes finding quality tech resources easy.  You can search by topic, type, price, purpose, etc. and it returns a list of tested and approved results, hopefully saving us from trying terrible apps and websites.  They have a list of top picks for each category, offer lesson plans incorporating these resources, and can link everything to CCSS (if you're into that).  There's also a Blog and you can set up a "board" of your favorite sites/tools (think Pinterest meets Symbaloo).

I'm still learning the site myself, but I hope you like it as much as I do.  :)  Peace, Kiera (MEES, 2nd Dual English)