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3.8.2 Makerspace Blog

  3.8.2 Makerspace Blog      When I first started hearing about Makerspaces, I wasn’t much impressed. It reminded me of the times in the lower grades where students could play with block to build stuff on their own in the corner of the classroom. Often I saw the makerspace being used for a group to build the highest tower using spaghetti and marshmallows, or it was the high tech version of programming some type of robot to go through a maze. It seemed like things you can do in a classroom at times, but why the need to make a permanent “space” for such activities?      According to Edutopia, “Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering. These are deeply collaborative activities unlike my blocks playing in kindergarten. They also very much need to accommodate a wide variety of tools, materials and activities. There are elements in the makerspace of the traditional In
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Tech Tools in Education: Are they helpful?

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The main benefit for me in using technology in my classroom cannot be overstated. Mainly I am grateful for their ability to organize my teaching and make it accessible to myself and to my students. I love organization but by nature tend to be disorganized. The fact that all of the apps in the G-Suite for Education work seamlessly with one another makes it hard to discuss one specific app without blending into the others. For instance I love that fact that I can receive an email with an upcoming date involved and can respond and then quickly click on the google calendar and create an event and then just as easy click on the google tasks and start to add tasks needed to be accomplished before the event without leaving the gmail app. Then when teaching I can have an organized outline in my drive as well as a google slides presentation organizing the information to be shared with my class.  As an educator communication is key and with the G-Suite for Education I have so many opti
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Review of Google News

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According to Wikipedia, Google News is “a  comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world.”  It contains the most up to date news in categories such as, Top Headlines, World headlines, Local News, Business, Technology, Entertainment, Sports Science and Health.   Some of its various tools allows the user to Save searches and stories. It also has a feature that shows you stories that it thinks you might be interested in based on your previous viewed stories.   You also have the ability to search by topic, locations or news source. On the right side you have text boxis the local weather Fact Check section, Links for in-depth reporting of key topics, Spotlight and trending search terms.   You can search the news world by phrase, exact phrase, Exclude words, and date. This website is invaluable for keeping you up to date with what is going on around the world. With it’s ability to search 1,000s of news services and pick out the top stories, provide l
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Blogs in Education

     Blogs are a great tool for sharing thoughts and ideas with fellow educators. As part of a Professional Learning Network it can be very helpful. As a contributor to the bigger educational conversation it is invaluable. Some practical ways of using blogs as a educator would be sharing classroom successes and failures to illicit encouragement and ideas for improvement. When researching a topic, a teacher could add information that they know and information that they are looking for so that their blog readers can share ideas. Also, I've heard that professional bloggers can make some pretty good money, always helpful on a teacher's salary.      For student it offers an authentic way to publish their writing work.  Our students are experts in so many areas from motorbike repair to minecraft. They can see that they are part of a greater community and can experience the sharing of their expertise through blogging.  Kathleen Morris in her blog "Why teachers and students should
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