Honest Company

 (Music plays) Tom: It’s Monday October 29th, 2012 and welcome to episode 139 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Cindy: and I’m Cindy Rich. Tom: Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers the show about Teaching and Learning with Technology.  Right Click Here to Download MP3 (26 minutes 15 seconds) The new new iPad and iPad mini Comparison Chart http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/24/tech/mobile/ipad-mini-comparisons/index.html Technology Picks of the Week Tom's Picks Personal Video Conferencing Skype http://beta.skype.com/en/ Google Hangouts http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/ Wolfram Alpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/ Cindy's Picks doodle.com (Easy Scheduling) http://doodle.com/ iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8 Keep on Learning.

Hi friends! Sorry for the delay in postings.  Life got a little crazy.  While I have been delayed in posting, I have been gathering ideas that I can't wait to share.  This is the first one. Google info searches scare me when dealing with kids, so I normally have my students use kid-friendly search engines.  But, kids do need to learn google!  I just learned the most amazing tip!  I will show you how to search google by reading level. Step One : Search for a Topic Step Two : On the left side of the search screen. click on "Show Search Results."   Step Three : Click on "Reading Level." Step Four : Click which level you are looking for.  It is that easy!

 Episode 138 - Space Jumps, eBooks, and Word Clouds  (Music plays) Tom: It’s Monday October 15th, 2012 and welcome to episode 138 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Cindy: and I’m Cindy Rich. Tom: Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers the show about Teaching and Learning with Technology. Right Click Here to Download MP3 (42 minutes 45 seconds) Show Notes and links for Episode 138  Felix Baumgartner lands after flying faster than the speed of sound http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/felix-baumgartner-tries-record-breaking-jump-again-live-blog/2012/10/14/b7ddfc18-159d-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_blog.html  eBook Settlement http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ebook-settlement-means-publishers-apple-162202879.html  Student Podcast Reviews Talk Shoe http://www.talkshoe.com/ Word Clouds  Tagxedo   http://www.tagxedo.com/  http://blog.tagxedo.com/101-ways-to-use-tagxedo-completedhttp://www.tagxedo.com/gallery.html  W...

Episode 137 - Blogging, Books, and RSS Changes It’s Friday, September 28, 2012 and welcome to episode 137 of Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m Tom Grissom and I'm Cindy Rich. Right Click Here to Download MP3 (30 minutes 57 seconds) In this episode we talk about a blogging project with 34 students and some of the issues we run into with using wireless Internet connections. We also talk about the National Book Festival that was completed last weekend in Washington, D.C. and we finish up with a couple of useful Technology Picks of the Week. Take a look at the brand new site, Congress.gov http://beta.congress.gov/ for federal legislative information. This beta site is exciting for educators that teach social studies or current events and are familiar with THomas.gov. Technology Picks of the Week. Tom's Pick Sound Cloud http://soundcloud.com/ Cindy's Picks Safeshare.tv http://safeshare.tv/ That wraps it up for episode 137 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show n...

Well, I was able to borrow 15 iPads and begin our literacy work.  It was a HUGE success.  The kids were so engaged on what was happening.  It was a moment where I just stood there and let the learning happen.  I did encounter a few issues; however.  Two of the station activities did not work with the iPads.  The first was due to a block from our internet filtering system.  I built this activity at home, so I was unaware of how the blocks might impact our lesson.  Also, one activity runs on flash.  Remember my earlier post about how iPads do not run flash?  Yep, I forgot my own advice. I guess I thought it ran through YouTube.  So, what I did was make that one station into a laptop station.  For the website that was blocked, I simply downloaded the short story I wanted them to listen to right into iTunes and they were able to enjoy the story.  So, my take away from this is: 1) QR codes immediately engage kids.  2) Our ...

Hi my friends! I have created a reading activity that includes the use of QR codes.  I will be using this with my 5th graders tomorrow.  I wanted a way to review "what good readers do" while checking in on the skills they have mastered and the ones I will be sure to focus on in the next few weeks.  Feel free to use it!  It was super easy to make. Let's walk through how I made this lesson. QR Codes and Great Readers   I first chose the topics/focus of my lesson.  I was actually inspired by this "Good Readers" poster I found on pinterest.  It did not link back to its original home.  I cannot find its  author, so if anyone out there knows who made this,  let me know so I can give credit to him/her. I then decided to make a QR code activity that reviews/assesses these skills.  I created questions that I wanted the students to answer.  I then found websites that would allow them to practice those skills.  For example, I chose v...

Episode 136 - We have the technology and we can use it It’s Friday, September 14, 2012 and welcome to episode 136 of Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m Cindy Rich and I’m Tom Grissom. We are changing things up a little bit. TechTalk4Teachers is moving to a bi-monthly format.     Right Click Here to Download MP3 (36 minutes 29 seconds) In this episode we talk about the all the technology available for teachers and students to use to create amazing projects. We also have a couple of useful Technology Picks of the Week. Technology Pick of the Week Tom's Pick Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch USB Slate http://www.wacom.com/en/products/bamboo/bambootablets.aspx Cindy's Pick Hero GoPro Caneras http://gopro.com/ Keep on Learning!