Last year I wrote about the greatest educational tool Microsoft has ever created; Reading Progress. The tool was in its early stages, and I approached it as an overview of the program. Today’s post is going to focus on how to use it in your classroom. For those of you who don’t want to go back and read my previous post on Reading Progress, here is a quick refresher Reading Progress is a free tool built into MS Teams and is…
This is a question I get all the time here in our district. Over the last couple of years schools had moved away from Discovery Education and that funding went to this amazing program. Let’s take a look. What is Nearpod? To start off with, Nearpod is a website and app-based digital tool that lets teachers use interactive learning resources based off a slide format (think PowerPoint with engagement). Nearpod has a massive collection of prepared lessons. Last time I…
Year after year, Microsoft continues to make improvements and innovation. A few years ago, Microsoft created Immersive Reader and it was a hit. This tool had it all: a read aloud aspect, the ability to show parts of speech, a picture dictionary, translation into 60+ languages. You could also change font size, use a line reader, split up syllables, change background color. I could go on about this free tool that’s available in so many other great programs. You could…
If you checked out the last blog post, you know that we are going through a bunch of updates that you might not have heard about regarding the main tools that we use here in Springfield. This week we are looking at PowerPoint and how amazing that it is. I’m not blowing smoke at you. When you check out these updates or Top 5s you will be amazed! Presenter Coach Improvements I cannot tell you how much I love the…
I love fall, while fall means summer is wrapping up (which I don’t love) it means that all our favorite systems get some fancy updates! This will kick off a whole series of posts about the main tools we use and the updates they get. The first one of those systems that we will explore is Microsoft Word. Word has come a long way from when I was using it in high school. Every year updates come to Word but, as a teacher, I think this is the best year yet. We are going to look at my Top 6 new…
I know I ended last year with a quote from a Michelle Branch song, and it is only fitting that we start the year off with one too! This one happens to be from when she formed a band called “The Wreckers” with Jessica Harp. This band, for their time, was awesome and I still listen to the live album all the time. My, Oh My Look How the Time Flied For many of you the summer was a welcomed reprieve from the hard school year. You took solace in knowing that we have made…