Tech Tools - Shared by Teachers - Google Slides and SlideCarnival

I just so happened to see this FaceBook group called 2ndaryELA while I was getting a pedicure on a summer afternoon in July. I requested to become a member, and then - wa-la, this new world was opened to me! It's a group consisting of thousands (10,763 as of Augusts 19th, to be exact) of ELA teachers - middle and high - sharing ideas in a positive way! What? Yes - sharing lesson plans, ideas, websites, technology... If it's happened or can happen in an ELA classroom, there is an answer, a solution, a great idea, a cheat, an anything, to help out a fellow teacher. What a great group. If you're not a member, join now. (As long as you're a positive educator).

So one thing that frequently comes up in discussions with teachers (from any discipline) is technology in the classroom. So I am going to start to compile a list of shares and then use it in the classroom and see where it goes.

Basic Tech Tools: Google Slides and SlideCarnival

I consider a basic tech tool to be one that is not entirely interactive: perhaps a presentation tool like Google Slides (or PowerPoint). I use Google Slides for every unit because I link it to my website and the students can access it from their phones, group laptops, home... anywhere. All the updates are live. On my Weebly classroom website, I include a unit page with standards, objectives, and always a link to my Google Slide. The key to making it useful is the sharing option. I will attempt to explain this using screen shots.

Google has a plethora of slide options to use... plain, templates, various colors and fonts. However, I just learned of a new (fun) slide option that links to Google: SlideCarnival.

Once in SlideCarnival, choose a template and then make a copy to your Google Drive.

Name your slide how you'd like. If using SlideCarnival, there are numerous slides in your presentation that offer suggestions for editing and fonts, etc. If you stick with the traditional Google Slide, it's pretty basic. 

Now for a truly useful tool for you and your students, you'll want to embed this slide into your Learning Management System (LMS) or your classroom website. It's super easy and you can  make it as fancy as your LMS allows. The important thing is to ensure that your permissions allow "anyone with the link can view."

Click on share. It's that blue button on the top right.

Next you will select the permissions. Ensure it looks as such:

Copy the link and you can paste it simply into your LMS or you can get a bit more fancy and attach it to an image on your website like I have done below.

Every update that you make to that Google Slide (from wherever it is that you are at) is saved to your site or LMS. I have literally updated spelling errors from my iPhone in the classroom. Sure, you have to refresh your SmartBoard or students need to refresh from their end, but the updates happen immediately.

Why is this THE BEST? Well, I literally have a live schedule of our class recorded and updated real-time. Absent students can see what they missed that day. You can embed videos and tutorials into your slides. Any worksheets can be uploaded into your drive (as a Google Doc or PDF) and you can link the assignment to your slide by simply using the "get shareable link" as well. I basically maintain everything in my slides and my students (and the parents) have access to all our tools.

One word of caution. If you are using a website in lieu of a private LMS, you may want to password protect your weebly (or website) page. Otherwise your unit (and those copyrighted docs from Teachers Pay Teachers) are out there for all.

Unwind - by Neal Shusterman

This summer, I joined a FB page named 2ndaryELA and it has truly been professional development every moment that I am perusing the page. I have never seen a group of such supportive and sharing people! These ELA teachers are constantly sharing whatever is asked and frequently teachers ask for reading pairing. I believe this book recommendation came from a response to what to pair with The Giver for those who have already read Lois Lowry's masterpiece. Multiple teachers suggested this, so naturally, I looked it up on Amazon.

When I read the synopsis, I got the chills!!!!! Just the back of the book will send a shiver down your spine: "Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different recipients, so life doesn't technically end." Did that give you the creeps? I really thought that I couldn't read it,  but since it was suggested as a book that even reluctant readers can't put down, I ordered two. (I have since ordered more for my classroom).

As mentioned on the rear cover, the three main characters are Connor, Risa, and Lev. The book is great for teens as the action immediately begins on page one with Connor plotting his escape after discovering that his parents secretly signed the irreversible government contract to have him unwound.  The three characters' stories quickly intertwine. While all did not begin as rebels, their fight to survive requires them to rebel against all the laws of their warped society and the characters come in and out of each other's lives on this perilous journey.

The eeriness doesn't just stop at the sheer idea that teens are dissected and placed in other beings... the levels continue to grow! Like does that brain taken from an "Unwound" have thoughts that drive the recipient to act in ways that he'd never expect? How do parents deal with the guilt of having their child unwound? Would they ever try to put their child back together again? And oh my, at the end, when the reader is present while a character is unwound while alive???? I mean, the action just doesn't stop.

Is this a disturbing 335 pages? You betcha! But it's the kind of disturbing that makes the reader think... what would I do? Why would society think this is okay? What is the value of a human? Should children and teens be ultimately judged by their actions while a minor in society? Would I be an "Unwind?"

Check this book out! You will not want to put it down!