Returning to Education

My husband and I overlooking an ever
present lake and mountains in Switzerland

I've been absent for quite a while on my blog because of many life changes. After leaving my position as a Technology Facilitator for the International School of Zug and Luzern in Switzerland, I returned to Texas with my husband to pursue opening our own business. This business was a nano beer brewery. We worked tirelessly for 3 years on this goal, and I'm proud to say that we did indeed build a brand, and made a product that I am very proud to stand behind. We closed the doors to our brewery on December 31. This decision did not come easily, but at this time, I do feel ready to move on. This is where Education comes back into the picture.

Our brewery logo 

This is a difficult shift. As a business owner, my mind was always occupied with the business. I couldn't get away from it, and I didn't want to. The brewery was our baby, and letting go is hard. I also know that my routine will change dramatically, though not working 120 hours a week is a definite plus. I actually think I'm looking forward to the return of a school routine. I have maintained my skills in technology over the past couple of years in numerous ways with our business, but I've also stayed in the Education Technology loop. I have friends and family in the industry and it's never been that far away. I am working on re-building an Ed Tech Twitter account (@TxpatEd) and I feel ready for the challenge.

This is where the hard part comes. I am currently on the search for an international teaching job in Instructional Technology. I'm anxious to return to the role and build upon my experience as a Teacher, Instructional Technology Specialist, Brewer, and Business Owner. You see, I'm convinced that all of these experiences have made me an even better educator. I'm anxious to see where we might be going, and what the next big change in our lives will be, but through my experience with our brewery, I know we will adapt and learn more about ourselves in the process.

FREE Entirely Online Education Technology Conference from Google

Thanks to Steven Anderson (@web20classroom), I learned of this FREE (yay free!!) education technology conference that is put on by Google and entirely online. It is called Education On Air, and there is a variety of different education technology topics represented in the sessions. You can see the full schedule here (note all times are Eastern).

When: May 2nd
Where: Online through Google+ Hangouts On Air
Time: 12-10pm (Eastern)

All of the sessions are presented by educators. You can get even more details here and check out the very informative FAQ page if you want to know even more!

A Few BrainPop Features I Forgot About

I was in a session earlier today about BrainPop at my local education service center, and decided that there are "A Few BrainPop Features I Forgot About". Since I forgot about them, I thought some of you might have too. Our district is fortunate enough to have a BrainPop subscription, but if your district is not, have no fear, there's some wonderful free features too!

If you have ever seen a BrainPop video you know that they are short and sweet, as well as very informative (if you haven't, click here to view one). I think they are a great way to intro a concept or reinforce. They can be class activities or individual student activities. Also, BrainPop is adding to the collection of activities that support their videos and the concepts that they deliver. Read on to learn (or be reminded) of a few.

FREE STUFF! That's right, I said free =)
You can get free stuff from all of the BrainPop sites (BrainPop, BrainPop Jr., BrainPop Español, BrainPop ESL), but it's best to go from the main BrainPop site so that you can see ALL of the free stuff from ALL of the sites! Just go to the main BrainPop page (brainpop.com) and click the button for free stuff. 

Search By Standards
I think this comes in particularly handy when you have a student or students that are struggling with a particular skill but it's also good for many more reasons. Just click the Standards button, select your state/subject/grade, and then click the link for the proper video or resource. It's not just videos listed here, but also games, which leads me to...

GameUp

These games are ALL FREE and intended to be reinforcement for skills that are demonstrated in the videos. This being said, they work well after a video has been watched, and also for reinforcing a concept that has been covered in class in a different way. The games can be accessed by clicking the GameUp button on the main page, or after a video has been watched.

That's just a few, but there's lots of other great things on their site too. I definitely suggest that you go check it out or revisit if you haven't been there in a while. Enjoy and Happy Friday!!

A Collection of Mind Mapping Resources

There are many sites available for creating mind maps online. I recently had a teacher approach me about online resources for creating mind maps and through my digging I've found a few favorites.

I've known of a few of these for a while and others are new discoveries. It seems the list for these brain storming resources is growing rapidly. Some are purely web based while others have smart phone apps and sync up across devices. It's really a choice of personal preference and they all work a little differently so...without further ado, here's a few =)

MindMeister (iOS, Android, Chrome, Web) - This is a great mind map for collaboration and it is available in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. You can have 3 active mind maps when you sign up for a free account. *Helpful Tip - Once you click sign up look at the bottom of the site for the FREE account link as it is not featured on their page).

Mindmaps (Chrome, Web) - I really like the simplicity of Mindmaps and the fact that you do not have to register for an account to use it. To connect ideas you just drag the red dot from one idea to another.

Lucidchart (Chrome, Web) - Lucidchart works by first dragging the shape you want onto your document. To connect the ideas you drag from any corner of a shape. Lucidchart allows you to collaborate easily with others through a provided link, plus they provide a free upgrade on your account for educators (make sure to click the button on the homepage for this)!

bubbl.us (Chrome, Web) - My favorite thing about bubbl.us is the speed at which you can add ideas to your mind map. To add a "sibling" bubble just hit the tab key while you have a bubble selected. You can also add a "child" bubble by pressing ctrl + enter on your keyboard.