Interested in Learning Photoshop or Excel for FREE?

Hey friends! It has surely been too long since I have posted anything to share. I have missed blogging and sharing with you. Hopefully things will settle down and I can resume my posting in a more timely manner. Today, I ran across this awesome chance for anyone to brush up on Excel skills or learn Photoshop free! Thanks goes to my Twitter friend, Lisa Monthie who I was so thrilled to meet in person this past February. She is full of information and tips.

Want to learn Photoshop?Brush up Excel skills?Enjoy 90 days free access to @atomic_learning Simply use code "month" https://t.co/yiJWdeF0h9

— Lisa Monthie (@lisamonthie) April 11, 2017

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Posted in atomic learning, excel, free, photo, photoshop

Do You Want to Encourage Reading?

Hello friends! Today I ran across a great online reading site to help encourage students to read more. It is called Epic! - Books for Kids and what is GREAT about it is that it is FREE for educators! All I did was fill out my school information online and was approved in no time. It did not take me 5 minutes and I was online listening to books being read aloud. Epic! recommends books for students (ages 1 - 12) and they offer have videos too. Teachers can set up different classrooms and earn points to get books and supplies for your classroom. Teachers may choose to add students and individualize their reading with assignments, quizzes, and activities. Epic! has a web version as well as apps from Apple or Google Play. Epic's goal has always been to empower children through reading and learning and they are in AWE of the many teachers that share this mission! Don't delay, check it out and you won't be disappointed. Look for the link LEARN MORE (small) to get to the Educator form. (See visual below)

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Posted in audio, books, early learners, early readers, ebooks, educator resources, free, Reading, story, storytime, videos

Do You Like Cool Stuff? It's October Time

What a way to welcome the month of October! I came across this free Writing Pack from Ed Galaxy. Don't you just love it when companies support students and teachers by providing resources to encourage writing. This is Cool Stuff for Nerdy Teachers, according to edgalaxy..com. They offer other resources for Literacy, Math, Technology, and more. Being an Instructional Technology Specialist for my District, Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD, I especially like the "Geek of the Week" projects to engage students with technology. Enjoy and download your October Writing Pack Here!

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Posted in edgalaxy.com, free, Geek, Lessons, October, Resource, writing

Win a Free Book by Reading!

Wow students! For every 3 books you read, you can select a free book from DOGO's Prize list of books. You can read a many as 20 books, which means 6 free books! Why not take advantage of this great deal DOGObooks is providing this summer? Here is the information on the Summer Reading program for 2015. It runs now through September 30, 2015. 

See Flyer here

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Posted in books, ELA, free, prize, Reading, summer

It has been super busy and crazy here in Southeast, TEXAS. Can I blame it on the unpredictable weather we have been having? I am finally able to shout out about my awesome attendance at TCEA in Austin, Texas six days ago. It was, as always, great to be around TECHie & NERDy friends around the country to learn and collaborate. In fact, one can learn so much that your head feels like it will explode! I have come across sites where attendees have accumulated their learnings and resources. I wanted you to have the links all in one place and check out some of my favorite ones. Of course, you can always refer back to the hashtags, #tcea15, #tcea2015, #learnanywhere on Twitter to find more. The handouts that TCEA provides  is another place to find resources. I also found that Miquel Guhlin shared his own resources through Postach.io in combination with Evernote.  He graciously provides a how-to explaining the tracking of Twitter with Evernote and Postach.io. Ok, enough rambling, here is my takeaways for you:

1.      Lesson Planet - stated that they were a combination of Simple K12, Atomic Learning, and Lynda.com   
I have 4 sheets to share with you with the information. Jake Moore: jake@lessonplanet.com 
888-217-7166  He said he would be willing to set up a webinar anytime to share the product with you, teachers, admin, etc. 
 

2.      AWE: Advanced Workstation Education: whitepaper available on data from 2013-14 in a Georgia Elementary school where average improvement was 55% in literacy scores across 4 Kindergarten classrooms! STAR assessment results (Works on Dell Venue tablets) Recommends only 2 per classroom or 8 in a lab setting in a rotation with Student Learning centers. Video about Case Study: http://www.awelearning.com/en/testimonial-videos/meadowviewelementary/ 
 

3.      Augmented Reality6: goo.gl/Gw2jPe (Teresa Hargrave went to this one) 
 

4.      Miquel Guhlin's Postach.io: http://mguhlin.postach.io/tag/tcea15 
 

5.      New Resource for School Administrators: Digital Leadership Daily: http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2015/02/a-new-resource-for-school-administrators-digital-leadership-daily.html 
 

6.      Augmented Storytelling (Lisa Johnson) https://www.bulbapp.com/u/cooking-up-augmented-storytelling 
 

7.      Dean Shareski Keynote: http://www.slideshare.net/shareski/from-so-what-to-now-what 
 

8.      What Do You Want Leaders to do with Technology: http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/5056 
 

9.      Changing Role of the Instructional Technologist (audio here): http://mguhlin.postach.io/tcea15-the-changing-role-of-the-instructional-technologist-audio-mradkins-dshudde 
 

10.     Online Materials for Sessions_Academies: http://mguhlin.postach.io/tcea15-online-materials-for-sessions 
 

11.     friachEdTechnology_amy's sessions:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1apSH3BpZSPrz8ZJSwU02_PU9COXWS_FiqCNO3FCjpcU/edit 
 

12.     TCEA15 Slidedeck on learnanywhere: http://mguhlin.postach.io/tcea15-collaborative-notes-slidedeck-on-learnanywhere 
 

13.     Monica Martinez's Embracing YouTube: https://sites.google.com/site/monicassites101/youtube 
 

14.     Coaching vs. Mentoring by DrBruceEllis: http://goo.gl/vFhdsA 
 

15.     Padlet of App Smackdown by j2training : http://padlet.com/j2training/appsmackdown 
 

16.     Steve Anderson's links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EKsj_brzQuuNfWsusoqKrdNpjmzpdjbwzNk7EfwSMQA/edit 
 

17.     Greg Garner's PLC presentation:https://www.haikudeck.com/digital-tools-for-your-plc-education-presentation-XiBtbBWDSV#slide-6 
 

18.     Tech Infusion presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1L_9Z0_vgvu8-NyY75yRPJDq4UdsGDJ6PD2R7Ou8d4FU/edit#slide=id.p 
 

19.     Value of Technology, Six Questions to ask: https://mrmck.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/6-quick-questions-to-determine-technologys-value/ 
 

20.     Fabulous & Free: http://fabandfree.weebly.com/

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Posted in AR, AWE, edtech, free, ITs, leader, Learn Anywhere, lesson planet, links, Lisa Johnson, miquel guhlin, resources, TCEA 2015, Tech, Twitter

Have You Heard of Zaption?

What is Zaption? It is a tool that makes video come alive with engaging and interactive video lessons created by none other than YOU! (That is unless you only use the ones in the gallery). Don't take my word for it, Take a  Zaption Tour. They have a gallery to watch some of the created Zappy tours where you can take video, clip it to include what you need for a lesson, add in questions or reading prompts to get your students thinking. This tool is well done and so user friendly. It reminds me of the one called EdPuzzle.

If you don't check out Zaption you will be missing out on an incredible tool that is FREE for a basic plan! They allow a 30 day test drive of Zaption Pro (look for the Take a TestDrive button). Zaption even has Pro Campus for those districts who have $$ floating around LOL. They provide an extensive Help Center with Five tips on creating your own effective Zaption Tour. Here is aYouTube tutorial on how to create a tour:



As if the web version is not enough, they have the Zaption app also.

Here is a sample one that I found on the History of the Christmas Tree. Not because I thought is was the best one; but it is one that is relevant to the season.   http://zapt.io/tqr8u3wf

If ;you are sold on Zaption, please use the referral link below, for a chance to win an upgrade or even a Pro Campus one.

My referral link: http://zapt.io/ru72tq928

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Posted in curriculum, digital media, editing, education, flip classroom, free, integrate, lesson, tour, upload, video tools, Zaption

Are You Ready for Disney's New App Available for K-2 Kiddos?

It is called Imagicademy and it will be here on December 11th right in time for Christmas folks! From the demo, it looks great for educators wanting to engage students with mobile learning. The demo covers the Math and Arts app, but there are plans for more that will cover math, creative arts, science, language arts, and social skills. Get ready, the apps will be free at first and will offer a great experience before they begin to charge a whopping $4.99 for each game or $19.00 for all five. Check here for more details on Imagicademy and be sure to watch the demo below. The first app available is called Mickey's Math Activities and it is free today!

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Posted in apps, Christmas, Disney, free, Imagicademy, K-2, mobile learning

Give Studyladder Another Look

Teachers, if you have not checked out Studyladder lately, now is a great time to give them another look. They have made some great changes and it is FREE (did I say free) for teachers. If you list your students before the end of September, they will receive EXTRA access, free to any of the tasks you set up. (Normally, there is 3 activities per day from home) What is Studyladder? It is a web based educational program designed by teachers like YOU. For grades PK - 7th or for those students needing some remediation. They cover content in Mathematics, Literacy, and more. What's great is that it can be used at school and at home. What I like about it is the interactive activities for the SMART boards. That is enough said, right? Simply go to www.studyladder.com and check out the resources for yourself. Hope you find it useful for your class!

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Posted in e-learning, free, interactive, IWB, online, Resource, studyladder, tool

Free Audiobooks

  Thanks to our Community Relations Coordinator, Sherry Combs, I was made aware of the website, SYNC Ya Literature. They are offering free audiobooks each week during the summer for those bookworms out there. It took me a little while to figure out how to go through the process before you can actually start reading. First you will have to create an account at SYNC just by using your email and verifying the account. That is quick and trouble free. You do know to get something free these days requires you to join something. Then you need to make sure you don't forget to uncheck things that they want to notify you. That will surely get your email box full after several joins LOL. Next, to download the books, they send it in a file (omc extension) that is unrecognizable until you install the OverDrive Media Console. They offer many different devices to choose from such as the iPhone, Android, Kindle, Nook, Mac, Windows, etc. The download does not take long and then you are ready to go the Sync to download the free audiobooks. I missed ones offered on Week 1 :-(  Hopefully, you can manage to snag the two this week. They are: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge and Oedipus the King by Sophocles. You have until May 28th to get these two.

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Posted in audiobooks, download, free, literature, overdrive, Reading, summer, Sync

Saturday PD on March 29th

Region V is hosting an EDCAMP at Warren ISD on March 29th. You can follow them on Twitter here:

@EdCampESC5

When: March 29, 2014—8:30 AM—4:00 PM

Where: Warren High School, Warren ISD, Warren, Texas

Address: 405 FM 3290 South, Warren, Texas 77664

According to Region 5, the teacher-led professional development is for anyone who wants to improve their craft. It allows choice and voice at the edcamp. The great thing about an edcamp is that it is FREE! No fees, but you need to register here, just in case the attendance gets above capacity. It will be help at Warren's high school. Join us for the first EdCamp ESC5! You will have a fun-filled day of learning, networking, collaborations, or just lurk around and see the excitement.

Now for those of you who do not wish to wonder out to Warren, but prefer staying home on Saturday. There is another opportunity for a free online event held by Simplek12.com. (Thanks, Woody Cox) They are offering free webinars all day long. You can register for the topic that interests you the most. Below is their schedule:

• Digital Differentiation: Tools to Support Flexible Learning Paths for Personalized Learning
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 10:00:00 AM EDT 

• Transforming Education with Personalized Learning and Differentiated Instruction
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 11:00:00 AM EDT 

• Differentiate Instruction and Energize Lessons with QR Codes
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 12:00:00 PM EDT 

• Techniques to Help Reach All Learning Styles: Enhancing the Way You Use LiveBinders
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 1:00:00 PM EDT 

• Lessons That Talk: Create Differentiated and Online Lessons with Screencasts and Audio
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 2:00:00 PM EDT 

• Differentiating Lessons to Meet the Common Core
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 3:00:00 PM EDT 

• How To Get The Most From the Teacher Learning Community
- Saturday, March 29, 2014 @ 4:00:00 PM EDT

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Posted in edcamp, ESC5, free, learning, online, PD, professional development, Simplek12, warren isd

Southeast Texas will Experience Edcamp

Well if you have not heard of an EDCAMP, you have not been online lately. This is the new style of Professional Development that everyone is raving about. In fact, over 250 events have popped up worldwide! What is so hot about an Edcamp? Edutopia explains all the ins and outs of an Edcamp here by @kristenswanson. What is amazing, is that we are having our own event in my area on March 29th so anyone nearby, feel free to join the event. It is free! That is one of the requirements of an Edcamp to not charge for the event. (Educators have no $$ LOL) Below you can see the flyer on our Region V Edcamp that will be held in Warren, Texas. Hope to see you there. A little bird told me that some "Tech" gurus may be in attendance! @TechNinjaTodd, iPadSammy, mattBgomez. Hope to see you there!

Region V Edcamp Flyer
Follow on Twitter: @EdCampESC5

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Posted in edcamp, Edutopia, flyer, free, non conference, PD, professional development, region 5

Math File Folder Game & Free App

This weeks free game is
"Substitution Spiral: One and Two Step Equation Game"

Solve and verify one and two step, first-degree equations of the form: x+a=b, ax=b, x-a=b where a, b, and c are integers.

Download this game here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Substitution-Spiral-One-and-Two-Step-Equation-Game-Algebra-Games-492597
lpforr59 said:

I am a big fan of file folder games, it takes kids to a different place in learning. This activity will help students through some of the struggles with todays Math and operations. Thanks!

Also as a bonus I have one of my apps free for a day.

4 Dice a Fractions Game
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/4-dice-a-fractions-game/id583546023?ls=1&mt=8
So if you havn't downloaded it yet please do today. Also if you have I'd love if you could leave a review of it on iTunes, thanks!

Email sent by
Justin Holladay

MathFileFolderGames.com

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Posted in algebra, app, dice, file folder, fractions, free, game, math

Fablevision is offering two free posters!

If you have not visited Fablevision Learning, I would recommend their site. Peter H. Reynolds is a fabulous author and artist who caters to students and teachers. He has developed many resources with the student in mind. I love his posters and have been collecting as many as I can. I love his illustrations and clip art. Get your two free posters today! Don't forget to sign up for the International Dot Day that was created from his book called "The Dot"! Each time I visit FableVision's many different sites, I discover something new. Today I found the Fable Place with online stories, games, movies, and fun. Hope you like it too!

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Posted in Fablevision, free, peter h reynolds, posters