MC Digital Blog

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This week, we are sharing a great resource for making and sharing interactive images. To get started, go to:  http://www.thinglink.com You will need to register for a free account to be able to edit and create new images. Once you register, you will be taken to your "stream" page.  Your stream page contains all of the images you have "touched" and any images created by people you follow. To save an image to this website for later, you need to touch it. You can also follow the creator to automatically see all images that person creates. On the top left corner of the page, you have the ability to see your images "Me", browse for new images by keyword "Browse", or create new interactive images by clicking "Create." I am going to create a new image. First you have to upload your image. ThinkLink allows you to import photos directly from Facebook, Flickr

Click Here for a Special Holiday Message from The Pirate Administration

Google Lit Trips hosts Odysseus' journey using an interactive timeline map. Take The Odyssey Tour now by clicking HERE.  Odysseus' Journey

I love it when I hear teachers incorporating digital learning into their lesson plans. One thing we must consider in the lesson plan is assessment. How are students' evaluated for their project? Here is a great resource of rubrics for digital projects. There are also rubrics for writing, research, and oral presentations. If the rubrics are not exactly what you are working on, this could still provide a good starting point for creating your own. Consider asking your students for their input on what they feel like is important to be evaluated on their project. Check it out from the University of Wisconsin, Stout.  Rubrics for Teachers  

Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives from all over the world! The collection is massive to include art projects, historic moments, and world wonders. Is your class studying the Holocaust?  Imagine a virtual field trip through this time period (click on the picture to go to the exhibit): To visit the Google Cultural Institute, visit:  http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/home You can also create your own galleries and exhibits from the thousands of primary sources available. Imagine a custom gallery based on a piece of literature or time period. It is free and easy to use. Want to learn more?  This short video gives an overview on how to use the Google Cultural Institute website, if your device will not play the video click Here :

Explore 13.7 billion years of shared history and consider the big questions about our Universe, our planet, life, and humanity. From the big bang to modern day to where we are going in the future, big history covers it all. The Big History Project is a free, online course that tells  the story of our Universe and humanity. Click HERE for more information! Click Here if your device will not play the videos below.

This video could be fun and useful to show to any class, particularly to English Language Learners.

Using protest movements and historical photos for English Language Development, click HERE to read and check out a student interactive site from The New York Times. 

Math@Work  is a new video series from Scholastic. The seven part series features Project Runway's Tim Gunn showing students how math is used in fashion design.  Even if your students don't have any interest in fashion design, showing them a clip or two from this series could be good way to get them to start thinking about how mathematics appears in career fields that they might not expect. Challenge your students to find other careers that incorporate mathematics even though it might not be obvious.  The first episode is below or click HERE

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Presentation.io  is a service that helps your audience follow along with your presentations. Presentation.io does this by allowing the members of your audience to see your slides on their laptops, iPads, and Android tablets and watch them change when you advance your slides. This ensures that everyone is on the same slide at the same time. This week Presentation.io added a new option that allows you to use your cell phone as a remote to control your slides.  To start using Presentation.io upload a PPT or PDF to your free Presentation.io account. Presentation.io then gives you a URL to distribute to your audience. When the members of your audience open that URL they will be able to see and follow along with your presentation. When you're done with your presentation just click "stop presenting" and the synchronization stops. To use your phone as a remote just start your presentation and Presentation.io will send you a text with a link to make your phone a remote. Simply u

Getting started with a Google Chromebook is very easy; so is being a normal Google Chromebook user. But to be a power user, you need to know some tips and tricks. Here are some to get you started! Top 85 Tips for Google Chromebook

Tis the season for the holiday grumps! That is what I like to call those up and down student behaviors associated with breaks in schedule, stress, and maybe just a little too much sugar or not enough sleep.  If your students are affected, now may be an excellent time to add a new strategy for behavior management. Class Charts is a free online behavior management tool that is easy to use and has options for student and parent accounts for communication. To get started, go to: www.classcharts.com You will need to sign-up for a free teacher account.  Once you register, when you login you will be taken to your homepage. There is a short tutorial and a video to give you an overview of how the website works. You will also have a demo class to start with. To add your actual students you click on the green "Add Class" button. When you add a class, you will see the screen above. You can add your students and class information, then click "Create Class"

Howdy Y'all! If you are unable to view the video below on your device, please visit: Click Here Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Anyone that wants more in-depth training about Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc) can sign up for this FREE online Google course. To Register Visit:  Google Drive for Educators Click Here.   If the video does not play on your device, please visit:  This is Google Drive Video

VideoNot.es  is a great app that syncs with Google Drive where students can watch a video and take notes at the same time. The best part is that all of their notes are automatically saved in Google Drive. Below is a demonstration on how to set-it up and in action or click HERE to watch.  1

Explore the science behind severe weather & learn how to be prepared. Discovery Education and The Weather Channel invite you to attend a virtual event LIVE from The Weather Channel on December 11th at 1pm ET. Can't make it at this time? Classrooms and teachers registered for the event will be notified when the archive is available soon after the live event. Meteorologists from The Weather Channel will discuss the science behind hurricanes, tornadoes and other severe weather and provide tips on how to create a plan to keep safe in case of a weather emergency. Your classroom will take a behind the scenes tour of The Weather Channel studios and live weather center to explore the technology used to predict, track and report severe weather.   To get ready for this event, check out a series of videos and hands-on activities , as well as a Family Preparedness student take-home activity. Join us for an interactive and informative discussion to prepare you and your s

Google released a great new tool for creating Google Earth tours.  Tour Builder  makes it easier than ever to create Google Earth tours in your browser. In the video below is a demonstration of how to use Tour Builder or click here to watch . Tour Builder could prove to be a great tool for students to use to create geography related book reviews, to tell stories from their own lives, or to develop geography research projects.  Examples: US History project- students can create a series of placemarks about battles of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Spanish class- students can create landmarks in Spanish speaking countries. 

Google Maps Street View imagery provides a good way to show students the world without leaving your classroom. Google Street View provides culturally significant places throughout the world that gives students  a prospective that they can't get by flipping through printed images or looking at flat maps.   Street View Special Collections   allows you to find that imagery in one place.  Explore world landmarks, discover natural wonders, and step inside locations such as museums, arenas, restaurants and small businesses with 360-degree images. Go Behind the Scenes by Clicking Here

The Chrome Toolbox site was created to celebrate the many Apps and Extensions made by developers which serve the accessibility needs of individuals with disabilities . Although Google already highlights accessibility features built into the Chrome browser or through add-ons, we have collected numerous other free tools that we feel further contribute to that mission. Use this searchable resource to locate tools that serve the particular challenges anyone might face while working in Chrome.   ChromeApp presentation   

Click Here for Social Media Guidelines Revised 11/6/2013  Important things to remember for Faculty & Staff: These social media guidelines have been created as a resource for you with the hope that you will be encouraged to participate in online social activities. It is important to create an atmosphere of trust and individual accountability, keeping in mind that information produced by JCS employees is a reflection on the entire district and is subject to the Johnston County Schools’ Board Policy 5175: Employee Use of Social Media and Johnston County Schools’ Board Policy 5220-R: Employee Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources (Johnston County Schools Employee Technology and Digital Citizenship Agreement). By accessing, creating or contributing to any blogs, wikis, podcasts or other social media for classroom or district use, you agree to abide by these guidelines.  Please read them carefully before participating in any social media application. As a reminde

1. To create your Google+ account, sign-in to your Gmail and click on the +Your Name symbol in the top far right of the page: +Megan 2. If this is your first time accessing Google+ you will be asked to create an account, simply follow the directions until you reach your homepage: Homepage 3. Click on the Home button in the top left corner and click on Profile. Home Button > Profile Your profile will look plain when you first join.  To add a cover photo (this will always be a public photo) click on change cover. You do have access to a gallery of stock photos for your cover photo or you can upload your own. My recommendation is to chose a stock photo for your cover photo or a photo that you have that is not personally identifiable (maybe a picture of your favorite team or a pretty landscape). To change your profile picture, hover your cursor over the circle space next to your name on the top of your profile. You can then upload or select your desired pho

Our Spanish teacher, Senorita Seay,  stumbled across an amazing virtual tour of Quito, Ecuador. Feel free to incorporate this amazing tour in one of your Spanish, history, or geography lesson plans.  http://discover.ecuador.travel/en/tren/tren-crucero-360   Lesson Planet has an abundant amount of educational resources and ideas for lesson plans. Here are some lesson ideas and activities for Ecuador found at:  http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/ecuador  

Over the next few days, Google be rolling out a feature that lets you view Gmail attachments and save files directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail.  The next time you open an email with attachments, you’ll see new previews of the files at the bottom of the email, from photos and videos to spreadsheets and PDFs. When you click on one of those previews, a full-screen view of the image or document will appear. You can read, search for a particular phrase, and even browse through multiple attachments within Gmail.  You can now also save your attachments directly to Drive simply by clicking the Drive button that appears when you hover over the preview. Of course, if you prefer to download the attachment to your computer, you can—just click the arrow button.  This new attachment experience is available on desktop and will be rolling out over the next week. 

Today is the first day of the North Carolina School Speed Test Month. Please take a minute and visit  http://partners. schoolsp eedtest.org/north- carolina. html  and take an automatic one-minute Internet speed test. Please do this on wired and wireless devices. We need both for feedback.  With this data we can prioritize Internet upgrades and make the case for increased investment in school Internet. Our school zipcode is 27591 Thank you for your participation in this process!