Technology Tools for Teachers

I am currently working on a professional development session and would love your input! Could you take just a minute and fill in the following form?  Thank you so much in advance!

~Cara

ISTE 2013: A Thought-Provoking Conference

The annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference was held in San Antonio, Texas.  This was my third ISTE conference.  Each year is more exciting than the one before.  It is an opportunity to learn new strategies and skills that will best help our students grow as members of a global society.  It is a chance to network with other educators across the country and world in order to flourish as quality teachers.  It is an occasion to highlight the great things happening within our classrooms and schools. 

ISTE13 gave many great memories.  I was given the opportunity to present a poster session with my friend, Farrah (Think*Share*Teach).  During this session, we talked with many teachers in casual conversations about the amazing things our students create.  We met many new friends and hopefully inspired each of those that attended.  

Each session I attended gave me new insights as an educator.  Whether the session specifically met my needs or not, I took the information and applied it to the type of teacher I want to be.  It is important to prepare the students in my school as 21st century learners.  However, that does not always mean that they are using some sort of technology tool.  As taken from Robin Hrivnatz, "Technology is part of the role but not the center of the role."  

While networking throughout the convention center, I met new friends.  Often, these were people I have followed and communicated through Facebook, Twitter, or this blog.  When you get to shake their hand, hug their neck, and thank them for the things you have learned from them, a definite bond is formed.  However, this aspect of ISTE causes a source of concern for me.  Often, those in attendance were simply networking.  They were not attending sessions to explore new teaching strategies.  They were not supporting those presenting in the sessions throughout the conference.  

My heart aches most for those in attendance that merely used this conference as a social outing.  Attendees were posting where they were "hanging out."  This often included late nights of drinking and partying.  Although I am not to judge, as educators, we are ranked to a higher standard.  Social media is a great tool to make connections, but we must remember that people do read and question the statuses that are posted.  The following words may be harsh, but it is a reminder that we should remember.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 

James 3:1

I spent a majority of my time with the following three people.  These ladies are strong, influential women in education.  We enjoyed our evenings celebrating our Christian fellowship. Together, we would enjoy long dinners, belly laughs, and intriguing conversations.  We attended sessions together and shared our thoughts from the things we heard.  Our hope was that others saw that we could have a great time in a way that was pleasing to God, our families, our students, and ourselves.  

Thank you, ISTE13, for a thought-provoking conference!

~Cara

ISTE 2013 Exhibit Hall Passes

VocabularySpellingCity has 20 free passes to the ISTE Exhibit Hall to give away. If you are traveling with friends or family members who are not planning to attend the conference, but may like to browse the Exhibit Hall, please contact nancy@spellingcity.com as soon as possible with your name and mailing address (along with the number of tickets you would like).  They will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis. 

~Cara

Personalized Mother's Day Gift and Freebie

The best Mother's Day gifts are those that are created by kids for their moms.  I absolutely love this idea merging creativity, writing, and technology.  

By using VocabularySpellingCity, your students can create fun puzzles and word games as gifts for their moms! Students can enter word lists right from VocabularySpellingCity's homepage, then print a custom Mom-themed Word Search (Free) or Crossword Puzzle (Premium). 

Better yet, VocabularySpellingCity is running a promotion from May 1-12 in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week next week.  They are offering non-Premium Member teachers a free 30-day trial!  Check out the banner on their homepage. The offer code is "teachersrock".   This way, you can print their crosswords for free.  

Happy Mother's Day!

~Cara

Dropbox: Say Goodbye to Jump Drives

If you are like me, you have problems keeping up with your jump drive. My biggest fear was always, "What if I lose it forever?" My life stayed on my jump drive until I discovered Dropbox. I have used Dropbox for over two years. Since then, I have never used a jump drive again. 


Dropbox is an online storage program. Everything is stored online, so you will never lose anything! I store class files, personal pictures and videos, important documents, etc. into my Dropbox. Dropbox holds all file types. You can access Dropbox from multiple computers and your iPad. You can even share folders with friends and colleagues. Your students can upload files into a shared Dropbox folder. There is a paid version of Dropbox, but I have never upgraded. You start with 2GB of free space, and there are multiple ways to upgrade that space.To get started with Dropbox, simply {click here}. 

~Cara

Insert an Excel Spreadsheet Into Word

While completing a grad school project, I was having a major headache! I was trying to insert an Excel spreadsheet with a lot of data into a word document. Every way I tried (thanks to Google), it came out wrong.  The margins were way off the page.  The spreadsheet only showed the first few rows.  It would insert as a picture and be so small that it couldn't be read.   It came to the point that I thought it was impossible! But, VIOLA!

I want to share with you what I did.  Maybe, it will be of use to you.  

1. Save your Excel spreadsheet as a PDF.  Go to FILE>SAVE AS>under SAVE AS TYPE change to PDF.  Be sure to specify the name and location where you want to save it.
2. Open PDF TO WORD ONLINE CONVERTER.  (I am in no way being compensated for sharing this site.  I simply found it in my struggle, and it is free!)
3. Select CHOOSE FILE.  Find where you saved your PDF, and click to open it.
4. Click CONVERT.  That's it! You will have to wait a few minutes depending on the size of your file, but it will open the file into a new word document.  You margins are perfect.  All the information is there.
5. You can keep it as its own document, or choose to copy and paste it into another document.  This is what I did.  To do this:
1. Highlight all the text in your newly converted document.  Press CTRL-C on your keyboard at the same time.  You don't have to hold them down.
2. Open the document you want to insert the table into, and press CTRL-V to paste it into this document.  

There you go! Simple and headache free!

~Cara

How to Read a Tweet

Twitter is a fantastic way to connect with others across the world.  As an educator, you will learn so much through your PLN (professional learning network).  The main reason many shy away from Twitter is that they just don't understand how to read a Tweet.  I am going to try to simplify that for you now.

The maximum limit for a Tweet is only 140 characters.  This includes all characters and spaces.  It is acceptable to use slang and abbreviations in your Tweets.

Followers are those who follow you and read your Tweets.  The only ones who see your Tweets are your followers unless you have been retweeted or searched.

Those following you will see all of your Tweets in their Twitter stream (the list showing all the Tweets).

# means hashtag. The hashtag is the subject of your Tweet.  You can include a hashtag to make your Tweets easier to search by others.  Here is a great list of educational hashtags by Cybraryman.

@ means a specific person. If you are talking to that person, the @ is at the beginning. If you are talking about that person, the @ is located in the Tweet.

RT means retweet. You are simply repeating what someone says.

MT means modified Tweet. If you want to use only part of a person’s Tweets, you included MT.

My Twitter handle (username) is @WhiteheadsClass. I would love to have you as a follower. 

~Cara