Links You’ll Love
EduCanon is a website that enables you to take a video and assign questions for your students to answer at pre-determined spots. Check out my sample video here. This is great for flipped classes.
Still haven’t signed up for JEDcamp Midwest? What’s holding you back? Here are 10 reasons to sign up TODAY.
Google Tip #1: If you love Google forms (you know I do!), check out this blog post about recent improvements. For instance, you can now shuffle questions (which is great if you want to use a form for an assessment), and limit people to only submitting one response per form. You can also insert a video into a form, which lends itself to using Google Form as part of a flipped classroom experience. Finally, (I LOVE this), when you go to “Send form,” you can now specify a shortened URL, eliminating the need to paste the long URL into goo.gl. Yay!
Google Tip #2: Did you know that you could use Google to “read” PDF files and turn them into text documents? Here’s how:
- Upload your PDF file to your Google drive
- Click in the box to the left of the uploaded file to select
- Click on More (at the top of your screen) and choose “Open with”
- Choose Google Docs
- Google will proceed to open your document. The beginning with have the image, and the digitized text will appear at the end of the document.
Now, it may not be perfect, and you may have to tweak it a little, but it beats retyping!
Links You’ll Love
This is just hysterical. Check out Shimon Peres’ plans for what to do after retirement:
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I do want to remind everyone about Sefaria. Sefaria allows you to choose different texts – or portions thereof – and create a custom resource sheet. It’s still in development, so every text isn’t there, but it’s awesome nonetheless.
Shameless JEDcamp plug of the week. We are proud and excited that the second annual JEDcamp Midwest will be here on Sunday, October 19th from noon until 4:00 pm. There will be swag! There will be free lunch! There will be door prizes! There will be lots of great ideas to share! Need more incentive? Watch the terrific movie about last year’s JEDcamp:
Chrome tip #1: I’m a multi-tab user, which means I often have a dozen or so browser tabs open at one time. Some of them, like my mail and Schedulet, are tabs that I always, always use. I hate it when I accidentally close them by clicking on the little x. To remedy that, and to make the tabs take up less space, I “pin” them. To pin a tab, right-click (or hold down the control key and click) and choose Pin Tab. Like magic, the tab takes up, well, a pin-size amount of space and it can’t be closed accidentally. To unpin and remove a tab you’ll have to right-click again.
Chrome tip #2: If you love to use Chrome, check out these Chrome extensions that can make your user experience even better!
Links You’ll Love – 10-18-13
It’s here! It’s here! The inaugural JEDcamp Midwest will be held here on Sunday. If you’ve signed up – we’re looking forward to seeing you Sunday. There’s still time to sneak in – you can check out our website. Here’s the session board – all ready and waiting for us to fill it up!
This graphic is an entertaining and enlightening riff on comparing apples to apples. Did you know that an iPhone 4S weighs as much as one apple, but is worth about 20,000 of them? What else could be compared this way?
While I don’t love the disclaimer that you shouldn’t use the Historical Thinking website with more than 20 computers at a time, I do like their approach to teaching “students how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives.” The site is designed for high school teachers, but I think looking at their approach could benefit all of us.
Interested in using Twitter to improve your own teaching practice? Check out this article.
JEDcamp Midwest is this Sunday!
We are so excited that we just can’t stand it around here. Finally – after planning, musing and (okay, just a little) cajoling… the big day is this Sunday, when a group of excited, passionate and willing-to-try-something-different educators are going to converge on our school to share with and learn from one another. Tickets are flying off the registration site!
Haven’t registered yet? There’s still a little time! Check out our blog or dash right over to the registration site.
See you Sunday!
Links You’ll Love – 10/4/13
October is Connected Educator Month. How can you become a connected educator? One way is to attend the first ever Chicago area JEDcamp on October 20th right here. Visit our website for more information. Or go directly to the registration site.
Want to use QR codes? Here’s a nice roundup with 12 ideas for using QR codes in your classroom.
YouTube has launched a library of copyright free music that your students can use for their projects. Learn more about it or visit YouTube’s audio library.
Funded in part by AT&T, Educade is a collection of lesson plans that you can browse by grade, subject, tool and/or platform. It’s very cool – and you can add your own!
Interested in building your digital classroom this fall? PBS is offering free webinars on awesome topics like incorporating social media (as in Twitter) into your classroom and how to integrate tablets (as in iPads). The webinars will be recorded so you can view them afterwards. Check out the “get your tech on” site.
JEDcamp is coming to the Chicago area!
For many, the best part of a conference isn’t the keynote or the planned sessions – it’s the side conversations. You know – the networking, the meeting old and new friends, the serendipitous brainstorming… What if a conference could have all of that good stuff without the formality of a hefty conference booklet and the expense and travel time? That was exactly the thinking that led educators to create “EdCamp,” the (un)conference (or, as a colleague coined it, a “pop-up” conference).
Edcamp started in Philadelphia in 2009 when a group of educators wanted to just get together and have organic, participant-directed, meaningful conversations about education. For more about edcamp, visit the Edcamp Foundation website. Here’s a great article about edcamps and their impact.
Well, this year several Jewish educators have decided that it’s time to have edcamps that are dedicated to talking about Jewish education. There have been two so far in Florida and New Jersey and there are two more scheduled to happen this year in Maryland and (insert drumroll here…) NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS!
Yes, my friends, we are proud and super excited to announce that Solomon Schechter Day School is sponsoring the first EVER Chicago area JEDcamp on Sunday, October 20th, 2013 between the hours of 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. How incredibly cool is that?
It’s important to note that, while this will be an amazing professional development opportunity for SSDS staff, we’re excited to open this up to all stakeholders in Jewish education in the Chicago area including those who are involved with day schools, religious schools, museums and informal education.
So… I’m encouraging all of you to plan to attend Chicago JEDcamp on October 20th, and if you’re interested, please consider joining the planning committee in formation (drop me an email before school is out for the summer to let me know you’re interested). And be sure to reach out to other educators you know in the area – it’s important that we get a diverse group to participate.
Let’s all make this a success!
About
Debbie Harris is the director of educational technology at the Sager Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL. Involved in Jewish education for over thirty years, she has an education degree from Northwestern University with a concentration in instructional media and a master’s degree in professional Jewish studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is skilled in using and teaching desktop publishing, video editing, presentation and animation software; and consults and presents regularly on integrating technology into Judaic studies. Her students podcast, blog, edit video and create claymations. She co-chaired the technology track for CAJE 33 in Vermont, is a SMART Certified Trainer for SMART Notebook, and a 2011 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
When not learning, teaching or writing about technology, Debbie likes to sketchnote and craft. She likes to knit, do calligraphy, sew, watercolor, paint fabric and just generally play with fun toys like scrapbooking supplies and anything with texture. Debbie travels to California every summer to paint tallitot with high school aged campers. Finally, she is incredibly proud of her two daughters; Lori, who teaches English at a community college; and Allie, who is the director of the URJ’s Camp Newman in California.
Look for her at:
Debbie Does Desktop
Flickr
Twitter
Diigo
YouTube
Ravelry
Email Debbie here
MuseForJews 