Monday, April 15, 2019

The Work Around Podcast: EDU Tangent



Last week, I did a new(ish)* thing for me: I was on a podcast! I was contacted via Twitter by Jon Fortney of FortneyTech.com to record an "EDU Tangent" episode for his podcast, The Work Around Podcast. It sounded cool, so I said yes!

When recording my story for this episode, I was given the direction to "...share a story (or stories) of events that led up to you becoming a teacher that helped you decide to be a teacher, stories as a teacher that were influential to your practice, and lessons you’ve learned along the way."

Because my story of "becoming" a teacher isn't really that interesting IMHO, I decided to tell my rollercoaster story of trying (and repeatedly failing) to move forward in my career. Perhaps my failures can be someone else's inspiration. :)

Here's a little trailer for the episode:

If you're interested in listening to the entire story, you can find it here. I'm very honored to have been asked to be on Jon's podcast, and he says extremely flattering things about me at the beginning that make me feel like he must be talking about someone else...! #impostorsyndrome

*[Fun fact/side story: five years ago, I was on a live Hangout on Air Podcast with the LadyGeeks talking about art. Want a blast from the past? Last I checked, you can still watch it here.]

- Mrs L.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

GSuite + Chromebook Activity for Middle School


A few days ago I tweeted a picture of an activity we were doing in class, and I had some really great feedback, including some requests to share! This sounded like a great idea for a blog post, so here we go: 


My original lesson for this activity included some tasks that are very specific to my classes (like "find the early finisher activity list" or "On the Creative Technology website, look for..."), so it wasn't as easy as just sharing the sheet as-is. I did a little work and cleaned it up to be less specific/more useful across a variety of schools and classes. When you click the image below, you'll be taken to a copy of this chart that you can actually edit and customize any way you want using Google Docs!

You can get your own (editable in Google Docs) copy of this BINGO board here! 

The way we use this in class is for students to eventually try and fill the entire board, but they can choose to do the tasks in any order that they want.

The first goal though, is to earn an actual BINGO: vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Once a student has earned a BINGO, they get to pick a sticker from my collection (I keep a bunch in a basket from the dollar store). It's a good way to start the activity off with some excitement! Middle schoolers love stickers (and so do I!).

Do you do any choice board activities in class? I'd love to hear your tips! 

- Mrs L.


Tuesday, April 2, 2019

I'm Turning 40 Next Week...


Hey all, sorry I don't get around to updating over here as often as I'd like. I've been super preoccupied with my Google Innovator project, ResetEDU, and you can always check out and keep up with what's going on over there! Have you seen the latest video, my first-ever collab?!


My stretch goal for 2019 is to reach 1000 followers on YouTube, and I'd love to have your support! My 40th birthday is next week (eek!) and you can give me an awesome FREE gift just by helping to spread the word about my project.

Since my birthday is April 9th, here are NINE ways that you can help:

  1. Subscribe to the ResetEDU channel on YouTube.
  2. Hit the "like" button on any/all the videos to help get me more views!
  3. Make a comment on any/all of the videos - this also helps with algorithm stuff and getting views!
  4. Follow ResetEDU on Twitter
  5. Follow ResetEDU on Instagram
  6. Re-tweet/repost any and all of the posts that you see on social media! Here's one you can RT right away!
  7. Make your own posts on social media about ResetEDU! Tag #ResetEDU and/or @ me so that I'm sure to see it! 
  8. Tell a friend about the channel. Send them the link to a specific video you think they'd enjoy. 
  9. Contact me to be a part of an upcoming ResetEDU project

Thank you! :)
- Mrs L.