LEX Talk Tech- Mrs. Hall's Technology Blog

This week my accelerated class has been dissecting fetal pigs (TGI {almost} F). In order to prepare for these dissections, I first had to get parental permission. I could have sent home paper copies of a permission slip and beg my students for days to return those, but instead, I designed a Google Form that I sent to parents via their e-mail. By using Google Forms, I was able to gather necessary information from my students in a quick and convenient way. In my form, I had an introduction to our activity along with my personal safety concerns. I also used a combination of short answer, long text and multiple choice in order for parents to answer my questions to the best of their knowledge. I asked for a parent emergency contact number along with any contact allergies their student may have. In one section, I also asked parents to explain any concerns they had for the assignment. Prior to our dissection, I was able to gather this information, print it off and have it for easy access in...

I enjoy almost everything Richard Byrne highlights on his blog, but I get extremely excited when he posts something that is related to science, especially if I can use it in my 7th grade classroom. This week, he posted “Seven Good Resources to Help Students Learn the Periodic Table”. In 7th grade, we have one unit that focuses on chemical reactions and knowledge of the periodic table of the elements in essential in order to be successful. I’m sure my kiddos would have appreciated this resource back in November :) Below is a short description of a few of the resources I found most beneficial and engaging for middle schoolers. Ptable-- this is an interactive display of the Periodic Table. When the user clicks on an element, a Wikipedia article opens up all about that element. https://ptable.com/ The Periodic Table of Elements, in Pictures & Words-- this resource focuses on how each element relates to products that students may be familiar with. When the user clicks on an...

Google Docs has a lot of great features. Many of which are possible due to the fact that all the files are stored in Google Drive. A feature that I have recently used extensively is the revision history. Every Google doc has a revision history and changes are saved almost immediately after edits. To access the history you can click the “changes saved” link at the top of every doc. It is organized in a simple list format that shows the date, time, and user of every edit made in the document. Students can use this feature to help remove unwanted revisions or deletes by either themselves or other shared users.  I particularly like to use this feature in the classroom to review individual group member contributions along with their time spent working on the document. Another benefit I have discovered is by going to the document creation you can discover plagiarism by uncovering pasted text that students try to reword. My  administration has even used this feature to confirm to pa...

Just when I think I know just about all there is to know about G Suite, I learn something new from Richard Byrne. One of my favorite and most often used Google products is Google Keep. Google Keep is a productivity and organizational notepad tool that syncs with Google Drive.  I use this tool every day to help keep me organized. I love to create lists and I use Keep to make my grocery list, keep up with my small business, set reminders, and to take notes for class. Once created, I can access these lists from any device and can also share my lists with others. For example, my husband and I can both access the grocery list so we can add items that need to be picked up from the store.  I recently discovered (thanks to Byrne's blog) that I can use Keep directly within Docs.  Using the Google Keep Chrome Extension, I am also able to bookmark website and take notes at the same time. Another cool feature (that I plan to try out for our next book summary) is using Google Keep to...

AirServer is a 3 rd party program/app that is created, serviced, and available for purchase from App Dynamic Inc. in Iceland. AirServer is an extremely advanced AirPlay and GoogleCast product for both Mac and PC. In other words, it works to turn a regular PC or Mac into a highly developed device to use for projecting and mirroring other devices. It can be used with many different types of devices and comes with a myriad of options. Although, they are constantly working to add support for other devices, they currently support all Apple devices, Android devices, and Chromebooks. The host device (teacher PC) is set up with the program and a few settings such as classroom name and casting password are defined. After that, teachers can connect to the pc/projector wirelessly using phones, laptops, tablets, or Chromebooks. This software is also an easy way to allow students to take control of your projector to display work or present a project. However, through the use of a passwor...

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his blog, I have discovered several awesome middle school science resources. One that he recently introduced on his blog is called Science Snacks. This resource has plenty of ideas and directions for hands-on science activities. I have been able to find an activity that is suitable for each of the units I teach in 7th grade. My favorite thing about this resource is that the materials the presenters use are so easy to access and are inexpensive. Each ‘snack’ includes procedures and materials along with a teacher guide and explanation. Some even have video demos that are also included. I am able to quickly search for snacks by searching by subject- life science, physical science, earth science, etc. and then I can match the provided activity to my current lesson plan. I feel as if the snacks are geared more towards upper level classes (mainly middle school or high school), but some of them could easily be modified to better suit elementary curricul...

This week, while working on a cell differentiation and specialization reading passage & questions on the Chromebooks, I thought that it would be much easier if my students were able to view multiple pages at the same time. After seeing my 1st hour struggle with the task of switching back and forth from their screen being on the reading passage to the google document where they were answering the questions, I used my 2nd hour plan to conduct some research. I googled "Chromebook Split Screen" and was so happy with what I had found. I was first excited to learn that our Chromebooks had the split screen capability (I was always a fan of the "alt + tab" shortcut on my old laptop) and then I was even HAPPIER to learn that there was also a shortcut to use on the Chromebooks for this feature. To split your screen on a Chromebook you simple press "Alt + {" to snap your screen to the left OR "Alt + }" to snap your screen to the right. Then, you can pu...