Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed vacation week. Get ready, because the last few weeks of school come fast and furious now. It feels like we were just gathering together in the library in August and now we are preparing to finish up the school year. I wanted to share more that I learned about when I attended the ASCD Conference in March. One of the last sessions I went to was all about using technology in the classroom, going beyond just having kids use devices or digitizing assignments. I learned about this awesome new free online warehouse of video clips that teachers can use. It's a free online platform created by AT & T in collaboration with Warner Bros called The Achievery. This site has over 500 videos and connects to seven different content areas. And there are free learning activities that connect to different video clips. Take a few minutes to check out The Achievery! And bonus...you can access the site in English or in Spanish! Some other online sites I discovered: Make music and play around with songwriting at the Chrome Music Lab. Have fun doodling with QuickDraw. Think of all the ways you can use Mentimeter with your students! Looking for ideas for reading and writing, check out ReadWriteThink. My current favorite tool is Canva.com. I know Jen Hall has been having students experiment with creating in Canva. The possibilities are endless! Have you played around with Canva yet? I know many of you have lots of digital tools or interactive tech that you use in your classrooms. If you come across something that you think the rest of us should know about or you have something let worked great with your students, share it with us or invite your colleagues in to see what the tool looks like in action. Or if you try any of these options mentioned above, let me know your thoughts! I loved having time during last week to do some reading! My to be read piles in my library at home are still rather tall, but I love being able to just plop down in my upholstered rocking chair and read for a period of time during the day. I run a virtual book club on Wednesday nights for 5th and 6th graders so I have had the chance to reread some favorites and explore some classics that I actually never read. I had never read Number the Stars so just read and discussed that one over the break. An interesting historical fiction book; I really didn't know about Denmark and their help with hiding Jews or helping them escape to Sweden. I am currently rereading Holes, getting ready to discuss that one with students. I also got a new book that I am excited to dive into: Tell Your Story: Teaching Students to Become World-Changing Thinkers and Writers. I have worked with the author Pam Allyn before and I heard her speak at ASCD. The Friday of April break was a pretty special day for me. I was asked to contribute a chapter to a book and the book was published on Friday! The book is called What Makes a Great Principal, and what I love about the book is that they reached out to students and teachers to ask them about the impact school leaders had on them. I was asked to write one of the chapters about being a visionary leader. Very excited to be included in this book!
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