TechieTeacher5280

In a recent post titled " Go Paperless ", I shared a Paperless PD QuickGuide our team created to help with meaningful tech integration in professional development. Since then, we've made a few adjustments to it and re-branded it as an Instructional Technology QuickGuide , designed to be a reference for teachers looking for ways to integrate technology. As with the original, this document is filled with links to sites and tutorials. Click on the image below to check it out! (*Note: Strange Google Behavior: For some people, the document is not opening without requesting Share permission, though it is set for all to view. If this happens to you, copy and paste the link into a new browser window, and you should be good to go.) We hope that teachers will find our QuickGuide helpful and easy to use. What do you use to inspire tech integration for yourself or others?

Our team was recently called upon to teach members of our district's Learning Services department strategies for integrating technology into their professional development (PD) sessions. Knowing that our district would soon be flooded with Chromebooks to support online testing and that we had people with a variety of skill levels, we developed three versions of a Google training to help people think about ways they could use Google tools in their PD sessions to reduce paper and enhance engagement. Our hope is that if teachers experience the meaningful use of technology in the PD sessions they attend, they will be inspired to transfer some of the tools and strategies into their own teaching. As a companion to these sessions, we developed a Paperless PD QuickGuide for participants to reference as they plan their PD sessions.

Like many others, my department has been drawn to blended learning and the personalized learning it allows. Both this year and last year, we worked with a small group of teachers in our district to help them implement blended learning pedagogy in the classroom. We've had much success, but make no mistake, transforming teaching to provide students with a blended learning experience is no small task. One of our favorite articles on the topic, The Basics of Blended Instruction , by Catlin R, Tucker, provides some great tips for teachers looking to pursue blended learning. One thing we observed in working with teachers is that it's extremely difficult to wrap your head around the difference between tech integration and blended learning. Truth be told, we were probably a bit fuzzy on it ourselves for quite some time! In order to help explain the difference, we created a graphic based on Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura's SAMR Model .   Because we receive numerous requests f...