Newela - Read All About It at Different Levels

Newsela provides daily current events articles written specifically for K-12 students. Each day, the site adds three new articles to the collection. Categories include Kids, Science, Money, Law, Health, Arts, and War and Peace. For every article, there are versions written at different Lexile levels. With just a few clicks, a teacher can provide the same story leveled for students of differing reading abilities.

Google Earth Resources from TCEA Technotes

Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students.  It is a free download for Mac or Windows and can be used with all grade levels.  Students can use Google Earth to explore topics like the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities, and the impact of natural disasters.  Teachers can use Google Earth demos to get students excited about geography beyond the static map or use different Google Earth layers to study transportation, demographics, economics, and specific local or exotic contexts. 

Here are some resources to help you utilize this powerful tool in your classroom:

·          Tutorials and Tips

·          Teaching with GoogleEarth

·          Livebinder of resources in all subject areas for Google Earth

·          Google Earth Blog on what’s new

·          GE Teach

World Read-Aloud Day

Skype with an Author on World Read-Aloud Day Join World Read-Aloud Day will be Wednesday, March 5. Celebrate the joy of reading by having an author Skype with your class to discuss a favorite book. This fantastic website offers a list of authors who have volunteered to virtually meet with students that day. You can sign up to participate and get great resources for World Read-Aloud Day here!

Tammy Worcester - TCEA 2014

At TCEA, I had the opportunity to sit in on several of Tammy Worcester's sessions.  Tammy is a distinguished presenter at TCEA.  Her sessions are held in the Ballroom because of the large crowd that she draws for her sessions.  One of my favorite sessions she does is "Tammy's Top 20 Tech Tips, Tricks, and Tools".  There were about 1000 people in the audience that afternoon (including our very own Kevin Worthy and Zach Snow, and Kenny Kaye Hudson!) Tammy was able to share more than 20 resources in this fast paced 50 minute session.  I am also thrilled to announce that she will be coming to Royse City in August for our professional development flex days!  I hope you will make time in your schedule to see one of her awesome presentations!

TCEA 2014!

I had the opportunity to attend TCEA last week in Austin with the group from Royse City.  It was an incredible conference! With more than 8,400 educators from across the state of Texas, there were many opportunities to learn about how technology is being integrated into all subjects and grades.  Over the next few weeks we will be exploring some of the resources we learned about in our sessions.  I did have the opportunity to see Monica Martinez, who is the Director of Professional Development for TCEA!  She will be coming to Royse City this summer as a presenter for our flex days professional development conference.  She is a Google Certified Administrator and trainer.  She shared many free Google Tools.  My favorite list was Google A-Z.  In this list you will find everything from Virtual Field Trips to personalized YouTube channels to custom search engines.  It is a wealth of resources for all content areas. Check it out!