Instructional Technology

The Coweta County 2017 Tech Summit will be held again at the Newnan Performing Arts Center on Thursday, June 1 from 8-4. The summit will consist of presentations from teachers and district leaders focusing on all things technology. Sessions will be approximately 50 minutes long and include a catered lunch. Presenters have the registration fee waived. Please click here to submit a presentation proposal. Contact Dr. Donald White or John Vaughn with any questions.

Designed by Google Chrome expert Alice Keeler, Slide Shot is a quick and innovative way to take pictures and quickly convert them to a google slide presentation. With Slide Shot, the Chrome extension takes a picture of your screen every minute, stores these images in your Google drive, then quickly imports them into a slide presentation. Imagine creating a slideshow you can share with students summarizing your work for the day that they can keep and use as a study aid. All with the click of a few buttons! Read more about this and download here.

Another useful tool from Keeler, this add-on creates a spreadsheet list of all documents that students have submitted to you thru the Google Classroom. More importantly, it creates links within the spreadsheet which provide a one-click access to student work in an organized manner. No more searching endlessly for student submissions. Click here for more information and how to add to your arsenal.

A truly intuitive tool that saves time for teachers and students alike. With this extension, you can double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble. You can also store words you have looked up for review later. This phenomenal tool also works with foreign languages as it translates words to your language of choice. Click here to add to your account.

In an effort to learn more about teacher needs and possible software that may be helpful to high school teachers and students, we are conducting a survey to learn more about TurnItIn. To learn more about this software, watch this video: https://vimeo.com/178088658

If you have not already, please complete the short survey found here: https://goo.gl/4DUCZj

Twitter has become a generation's tool for communicating all things, good and bad. Recently more popularized as a quick and easy way to communicate with anyone in the world, Twitter is a great networking tool used by many in the education world, especially here in Coweta. If you are not familiar and would like to learn more, click here to read about the basics and how to get started with your own account.

Grow as a professional, plus stay at home in your pajamas! If this sounds intriguing to you, then hop on Twitter and join in on our professional development chats on Sunday nights at 8! Just type in the hashtag #CowetaEdChat to read and join the chat. In just a few sessions, you will grow and become connected to a family of educators across the district who want to make a difference for Coweta students!

Upcoming Chats Include:

Sunday, March 12th at 8 with host Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a PIRATE and publisher of a fantastic series of professional development books!

Sunday, March 26th at 8 with host Michelle Clarke, math teacher extraordinaire at Madras Middle School. She will discuss math strategies and formative assessments that make a difference in student achievement!

We can't wait to see you there!

To learn more about a Twitter Chats or information about joining the conversation contact: Laura Farmer at laura.farmer@cowetaschools.net

Google Suite Takes CEC Teacher Way Beyond Early Days of BYOT

“We’ve come such a long way from my first technology class in 2012-13,” according to Cathrine Nolan, Applied Sciences director at the Central Education Center (CEC).

While the school system leveraged the technology that many students already had to enhance instruction, Nolan recalls some of the early challenges. She remembers how teachers and students persevered through WiFi outages, blocked sites, lengthy or broken links, and an arduous approval processes for downloading educational apps.

“These early challenges, coupled with students using their own data, often made the task of implementing instructional technology seem overwhelming,” Nolan stated.

As Nolan and other educators discovered Dropbox, bit.ly, Live Binders, and Edmodo, instructional technology gained momentum. Current upgrades in WiFi and implementation of student Chromebooks has moved our school system beyond the early days of BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology).

“Currently, all students have access to instructional technology and, once the Google suite came along, things are easy and smooth 95% of time,” Nolan said. According to Nolan, it’s a great opportunity for teachers to jump in and see how simple it is to add more technology to the learning experience.

A graduate of Kennesaw State in Biology (B.S.) and Science Education and Leadership (M.Ed.), Nolan teaches a diverse array of courses at CEC: Biotechnology, Wildlife Management, Horticulture, Forensics (8th grade), Physical Science, and Scientific Research III:STEM. Her classes are hands-on with a focus on real-world applications and experiences, so technology is an essential part of her work day.

“I regularly use all portions of the Google Suite almost daily in my classes,” explained Nolan. “I post our agenda and essential questions using Google Classroom. Google Forms is ideal for assessment and student surveys.”

“As I am a well-known data nerd, I like that Forms generates a spreadsheet! I also use Sheets to track my TKES goal, chart SGA expectations, and help students determine their GPA,” she said. “Seriously I love data and its analyzation!”

Nolan also recommends Poll-Everywhere “when you want students to drive the class activities,” and she is excited to try the new Doc to Forms add-on to enhance her formative assessments.

Not only does the Google suite meet her needs for easy assessment and timely results, but she also teaches her students how to use Google Sheets and graphing functions when they collect data. Her students present using Google Slides and use Google Forms to develop surveys. “Animoto is another app my students use for presentations. I love its ease of use and impressive output,” she said.

Looking forward, Nolan would like to find more apps for students to use in her classes. She is currently working to improve how her students develop digital portfolios of their work. “I was having them turn in portfolios in Google Classroom to a folder on my Google drive,” she explained, “but this semester I want to have them turn in their portfolios to a spreadsheet with links that I saw in the last Instructional Technology digital newsletter.”