Taking a break #edchat

I recently wrote and article for Edutopia about Teacher Burnout. It focuses on 4 things to look for in yourself and others. I wrote that post because I was/am burnt out.

I push myself all year to be the best at everything I do and that usually means that I have nothing left come June. ISTE has usually been the the week where I bounce back, feel good about all of the things I have done over the year and connect with my friends in a new city. This year did not play out how I would have hoped.

I am beyond honored to have received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from ISTE. There are so many amazing teachers out there that it is hard for me to fathom that I was the best of the best for 2013. This great recognition kept me busy during ISTE with photo shoots, meetings and the such. I felt like I was on the go from the start. I have nobody to blame but myself. I have a hard time saying no to people or groups that have been so supportive of the work I do with my students. Sadly, I am still spent.

In one month, Tim and I are embarking on a trip across the country in the hope of meeting new teachers and learning a thing or two about teaching from others. We kick off with a Keynote at the Great Clark County Conference and will set of for San Francisco on our #EduTour.

I have 1 month to work on a Keynote and put the finishing touches on the trip. I will be taking a break from @TheNerdyTeacher and my blog for a few weeks so I can concentrate on the EduTour and my family. With this little break from the Nerdy Teacher grind, I hope to be refreshed for a trip that will be fun, educational and downright silly.

So, please forgive me if I do not get back to your tweets or DMs. I want to be the best Nerdy Teacher I can be and that requires a break to recharge the batteries.

See you on the flip side Internet.

Nick

A Star Wars Guide to #ISTE13

This summer I will be attending my 4th ISTE conference. Each year I learn something new and I feel it is important to impart this growing knowledge with any first-time attendees. I've been thinking of a fun way to share this information and wanted to do a quote based post. I took some great suggestions on the movie or TV show I should use, but I got caught up in a Star Wars marathon this weekend and the quotes seemed to jump out at me. So, here is your Star Wars Guide to ISTE13.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

This is one of the most spoken lines in all of the Star Wars movies. Today, it is a funny quip to share with your nerdy friends. For ISTE, this line has a very important meaning. If you walk into a session and your gut tells you this is not going to go well, get up and get out. Trust your instincts. If you get  a bad feeling about the session you chose, you have to leave. This conference is not cheap, so why waste money on a session you will not find helpful. Get out and find another session or head to one of the social areas and start a conversation. Either option is better than staying in a session that is providing no value.

“This is some rescue. You came in here and you didn’t have a plan for getting out?”

“He’s the brains, sweetheart!”

Take time and create a plan for your time at ISTE. Take a look at the planner and decide where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Make sure you put in plenty of time for breaks, meals and hanging with friends. A good plan will make for a great ISTE. I tried to "X-Wing it" for my first ISTE and I was all over the place. I simple schedule that allows for learning and socialization is the best approach for this conference.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

It is important to keep an open mind when at ISTE. Try going to sessions on topics you are not familiar with instead of sessions you know plenty about. It is important to try new things and have faith in yourself that you can challenge your beliefs.

Also, be confident in what you know and do not be afraid to share with others. You are an expert in your field and it is ok to offer other ideas to the crowd. People are at ISTE to share ideas, not just listen to the same speech over and over again. Have faith in yourself and people will respect you for it.

“Who’s the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?”

Choose the session you want based on what you want to learn, not what your friends are going to see. I fall victim to this from time to time. Just because my friend is going to a session is a terrible reason for me to go. You need to choose a session where you will learn something or strengthen a skill you already have. Just following another person blindly might not end well for you and the session you chose.

“Laugh it up, fuzzball!”

One of the most important things to remember about ISTE is to have fun. You are going to be surrounded by some of the nerdiest people in the country that care about all of the same things you do. Now is the time to let your hair down and have a good time. Be fun, be silly and learn from some of the best people out there. ISTE is a crazy event and it is important to have a good time. As Master Yoda said, "Do or do not, there is no try".

Wrapping up the Epic @Evernote Experiment #EdChat

It is hard to believe that June is upon us and my Epic Evernote Experiment is coming to a close. I wanted to share some thoughts with you on how this worked out for me and my students this year and offer some suggestions for teachers considering integrating Evernote into their workflow.

Lesson Planning:

This was the first year that I moved all of my lesson plans to Evernote. Everything I did started in Evernote as a note. All of my units were outlined in Evernote and all of my projects were planned in Evernote. If it was an idea in my brain about school, it ended up in Evernote.

I was able to store all of my old handouts and notes as PDFs that became searchable parts of my Evernote environment. I loved having my lessons with me wherever I went. I would often add ideas on my phone while waiting for meetings, appointments or before I went to bed. I was able to lesson plan on the go and that is huge for me. I found myself on the go more than ever this year and it was nice to have my lessons with me so I can address any ideas I might have. Inspiration rarely hits me while I'm sitting at my desk, so Evernote was perfect for capturing my ideas whenever and wherever I had them. 

Communication:

I created shared notebooks for student assignments. I personally invited each student to the notebook for their class. In that notebook, I placed the days' work. Almost every day, there was a new note explaining what the class work was going to be the next day. 

Students were able to access their work wherever they could access Evernote. The vast majority of my students have mobile devices of their own, so many of them would access Evernote on their cellphone. I had a significant drop in the number of students who claimed that they did not know what they assignment was the day before. It has been a huge time saver on my part. I no longer have to use class time to catch students up on what they missed. They know to go to Evernote to see what we did and what they need to make up. 

Access:

I was able to find a digital version of almost every piece of literature my class covered this year. I found them all online and saved these links in notes and shared them with the students. This allowed my students to leave their bulky textbook at home and read on the fly with their personal device. Most of the novels still needed to be passed out to the students, byt the vast majority of poems and short stories we cover are outside of copyright, so free digital version were available to my students. 

This was great for my students who wanted to see what the assignment was and complete it without ever having to leave the Evernote environment. Many students told me this was very helpful when they were going on vacation, sports trips and other long excursions where a large textbook and a notebook would not help them in a bus or car. Evernote gave them access to do their work when they wanted and that is a big win for me as a teacher. 

One final part of access has to do with parents. I placed the public link to the homework notebooks on my school website so parents could access the work as well. If a parent wanted, they could join the notebook from the public link I have posted and they can keep track of their child's work from anywhere they are. It's a nice bonus feature for parents that do not want to jump through hoops to get my teacher page and find the correct class for the assignments. 

Portfolios:

One of the big pushes for me this year was to have my students create portfolios. I wanted them to create a digital record of their work so they could access it when they needed. This access would hopefully prompt better reflection on their writing and leave to improved skills and stronger writing as the year progressed. 

My students have been keeping all of their work in Evernote this year and I think it has worked well. All handwritten work can be scanned or captured using Evernote's camera function. The nice part of the photos being added is that they become a searchable part of the Evernote environment. This means students can search for specific comments I have left and see what they need to work on for their next assignment. 

Students have done a very good jon of keeping their portfolios together, but some needed constant reminders to put their items in their so I could review them later. I loved the ability to have these portfolios be a shared notebook that would allow me to create a note just for my comments. It allowed for a dialogue on their work that did not need to happen publicly in class. I did not use this feature as much as I would have liked, but I can see myself dedicating more time to it next year because I do think it is a valuable option for communicating with students about their work. 

Next Year - Reminders 

This new feature by Evernote allows users to set up notification reminders on notes. This is going to be awesome for next year. Students that have joined shared notebooks can get automatic reminders if I set them on their assignments. I can set the reminder for one minute before school gets out so they can remember to get what they need from their locker for an assignment they might have forgotten about. 

This little addition to the Evernote world is huge for education. Students could get a digital reminder for every assignment given to them if the teacher adds the reminder to the note. That is huge. All of those students that forgot work despite all of the this help, can get one more reminder before school gets out for the day. I was hoping for something like this and I'm excited to see this in practice next year.

Overall Assessment:

I loved moving to Evernote this year. For me, it makes the most sense. I love having everything in a central location and at my fingertips. I will not have to reinvent the wheel next year with my lessons and I can tweak work on Evernote whenever I want. I worked hard all year to leave notes to myself in the lessons I made so I can make the appropriate changes next year. Using Evernote for Lesson Planning is a no brainer and I can't wait to see what next year will look like knowing I do not have to start from scratch. 

As for the student use, I was very happy with how everything turned out. Students used Evernote to take class notes, plan projects and store their graded work. I would like to try and set up a way using Evernote's email for students to submit work digitally and directly into notebooks. I would also like to try using Skitch to grade their work as well. The kids loved using Evernote and many of them used it for other classes. It really had a positive impact on many of my students on how they take notes and organize their class life. 

Evernote is a perfect solution for a 1:1 environment. I used it my class and was able to almost become completely paperless. That is crazy to think about when you consider the fact that I am an English teacher. After only one year of trying this experiment out, I'm excited to see what I can accomplish nest year with the experience under my belt. 

If you are interested in trying to move Evernote into your educational world, check out my book, The Complete Guide to Evernote in Education. It is available on Kindle and the iBookstore. 

If you want to start your Evernote journey now, follow this link to sign up!

Safe with Griffin 2 #EdTech

Here are some more great cases for iPads for those looking to keep their iPads safe at home and in the classroom as well as a excellent option for storage and syncing iOS devices.

NEW: Use the code THENERDYTEACHER for 20% off their purchase! This code is valid until 6/21.

Slim Folio

The Slim Folio ($39.99) is the perfect case for those of you looking for a sleek way to protect the iPad. The case folds open nicely and allows you to prop it up so you can type away in your next meeting. It fits nicely in the arm and the iPad slides in and out easily from the case. Nice access to the volume buttons and the camera is not obstructed by the case at all. This case is perfect for the person looking for a more formal iPad case.

IntelliCase

The IntelliCase ($59.99) is a great case for those looking for a little more protection for their iPad. The protective polycarbonate shell does a wonderful job keeping both sides of the iPad nice and safe as it travels with you from place to place. The iPad wakes and sleeps on the opening and closing of the front cover. The iPad securely snaps into the case and can easily be removed if needed. There is easy access to all ports and buttons. It kept the slimness of the iPad than many people love in the first place. The IntelliCase is a perfect case for people looking for a slim and protective option for their iPad.

SeeSaw

The SeeSaw ($34.99) is such a great case for younger students. It sits perfectly on a desk for students. No worries about students trying to prop up the iPad on their desk and it is safe if bumped around. The handle in the back and the spot for the stylus is perfect for the students who need to move around the room with their iPad. The fun colors and the soft exterior is perfect for students. The case sat nicely on my desk as I used it to read the notes in my Evernote account. The case drew a few odd looks from my students, but high school students are always weirded out by anything new.

Overall, I really liked this case and will be using it in my house with my 2 year old. It is perfect to let him sit comfortably at the table and use the iPad for his learning and silly games. It is one of the best children cases for iPad that I have ever used and strongly recommend it to people looking for an iPad case solution for younger students.