Google Workshop - Happiness!

Google Workshop on Internet Safety for Educators

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to take part in Google Argentina's workshop for educators on Internet Safety. It is truly refreshing to see so many like-minded teachers willing to spend a whole morning during winter break to learn a few tricks to apply in class (and in daily browsing) 

Internet safety is definitely something we all deem vital, but know very little of. These are some of the things I learned yesterday:

• Passwords: We need to stop thinking of passwords and start creating passphrases. For example, let's say your favorite book is One Hundred Years of Solitude. Your password could then be: OHYoS#1967 (the year it was written) This way, your password fulfills all the necessary requirements: 8 characters minimum, upper/lower case letters, special characters, and numbers. And, most importantly, you will remember it. 

Source: http://www.someecards.com/

• Two-step verification: Enabling two-step verification is basically adding an extra layer of security to your account, especially those which have sensitive information. Every time you sign in, you'll be asked to type in your password and also include a specially generated code you'll be given.  There's even an app to make your life easier. You can learn more about two-step verification here.

• Chrome Safe Search: By turning safe search on, you'll be making sure your students/kids will not be accessing inappropriate content. It is dead-easy to enable. You just need to visit your settings page. More detailed instructions here. 

• Youtube Restricted Mode: Worried that your kids/class might watch something inappropriate on Youtube? You can replicate Chrome's Safe search by turning on Restricted Mode. You'll find this at the bottom of the home page. Interested? Click here for further instructions.  

Computational Thinking

This week I started this online course on Computational Thinking. It is a self-paced course in which you can learn different problem-solving skills that can be applied in any field. I found it incredibly interesting, not just for class, but for real life as well. You can check it our on its official site.

Ed Tech Newsletter - July #2

Remember you can sign up to get this newsletter straight to your inbox here. Hey, there!  Welcome to your dose of ed tech tips.

Hi, Wow! The winter holidays have finally arrived with the promise to recharge our batteries for the second semester. I hope they deliver. I sure need them. I'm writing this today to keep last newsletter's promise of telling you more about TED talks. With their slogan in mind, "Ideas worth spreading", let's jump right into it.  Site of the week This week's site is (no spoiler alert) TED.com. Now, some of you have probably heard of TED talks, seen some, or are big fans of them. Who has not heard of Sir Ken Robinson's famous TED talk"Do schools kill creativity?" (if you haven't, then I strongly - strongly - advise you to spare 20 minutes of your time and check it out. It is to date the most popular TED talk, with over 10 million views) TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, originated as a one-time conference 30 years ago, but went viral in the last 10. The popularity of the talks grew exponentially and there are now thousands of them, amassing billions of views. There are three "official" annual events and countless independent conferences around the world (easily identified by their 'x' in TEDx (there's even a TEDxRiodelaPlata, aTEDxBuenosAires, and a TEDxCordoba) TED talks cover a plethora of topics, some of which you will find interesting as an educator, as a mom/dad, a life-long learner, you name it. Video of the week It's incredibly challenging to choose just one TED talk to share with you. In fact, I have a Youtube playlist of TED talks that keeps on growing and growing. No end in sight. That being said, there's one talk that comes to mind for this newsletter and it is Rita Pierson's 2013 TED talk "Every kid needs a champion". Why? Aside from her vast experience as an educator and her fantastically timed humor, Rita has a compelling message to share: the value of human connection in teaching. A powerful reminder as we round off this first half of the year and embark on our second one. I couldn't have said it better myself: "every child deserves a champion, an adult who would never give up on them".

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

App of the week Remember Pocket? That very useful bookmark that lets you save websites for later? Boy, do I have something for you! I like Pocket. It's been life-saving on numerous occasions, but I definitely have a soft spot for Pinterest. Ask anyone who has used it in the past and they'll probably go "Aww, Pinterest...". Why, you may ask? Simply because it allows you to bookmark pages with an add-on just like Pocket, but you get to organize them in different boards. And since it is a social bookmark you can follow other pinners (for example, me!) and get inspired by what they find (which also saves tons of time). Curious? You'll find out more about it here. A word of advice, though. Once you go Pinterest, you never go back. I kid you not. There's such a thing as a "pinterestoholic" and a "pintervention". You have been warned.  Happy holidays! See you in 2 weeks!

“Students who are loved at home, come to school to learn, and students who aren't, come to school to be loved” Nicholas A. Ferroni

Pinterest

Last month, I wrote about a very interesting tool for bookmarking: Pocket. 

Save to Pocket has proven to be incredibly helpful. It's pretty intuitive, saves content for later access and has easy-to-install add-ons, which means that, with a simple click, your site is saved.

But the real jewel of bookmarks in my opinion is definitely Pinterest. Ahh, Pinterest, you make me waste countless hours sailing through a sea of pins. But I love you, anyway.

It works pretty much the same way. You find something you like on the web and you pin it for future reference. There's also an add-on for Chrome, which you can install from here. You can create different boards in order to organize your content and find it more quickly. 

Bookmarking has evolved in the past years into social bookmarking, which basically means that you can share the content you found and also benefit from what other people have stumbled upon on the Internet. Pinterest has this social component as well, since you can follow other pinners and get inspired by their pins. 

Some of the pinners I find most useful are TED, Edudemic, Edutopia and Humor Train for the occasional laugh. And you can find me as well ;)

Happy pinning!

Ed tech Newsletter - July 1

This is July 1's newsletter.

OK, let's dive straight into today's newsletter. We learn something new every day, right? It's an old maxim, true. But in a world where innovation is pervasive such a concept becomes more appropriate than ever. This is one of the reasons that drove me to write these biweekly newsletters: to share with you those new things that have crossed my path. And it is also the theme of this newsletter in particular: novelty. Let's dig in.  Video of the week I came across Matt Cutts' TED Talk a few months ago. (If you are wondering what a TED Talk is, I strongly encourage you to check them out. I'll be writing about them in the next newsletter, but if you can't wait until then, browse away!) Back to Cutts. I liked his character, his sense of humor, but most of all his challenge: to try something new for 30 days. Repeating what we know how to do is easy, practical. We've learned it, mastered it, and so now we feel comfortable with it. It has worked in the past so why try something new? I could name a dozen reasons why but at the end of the day, I guess I'd say stepping into the unknown is what keeps us alive, moving forward.  I've used Cutt's video in class with my teenage students. His language is fairly simple and his pace is EFL-student friendly. My students came up with amazing ideas. One had always been interested in photography, so she took on the challenge of snapping a photo of something that made her happy for 30 days. Another one had a hard time writing her essays, so she decided to learn a new word for 30 days (You can get them straight to your email from sites like this one) Mind you, I didn't come up with these ideas so I can't take credit for them. I was, in fact, surprised by such an enthusiastic reception. But this is what happens when we open up and share something with others. People take it, own it and come up with ideas we would have never even dreamed of. So in Cutt's words, what are you waiting for? Site of the week So by now you might have seen Cutt's video and thought of giving it a try. But where to start? Let me give you a hand with that. Remember the TED talks I told you about a couple of lines above? Following the spirit of TED and with education in mind, TED-Ed was created. It's a fascinating site that you'll find incredibly useful for your classes. I'll tell you all about it in the next newsletter, but let me share with you TED-Ed's July Challenge. How does it work? You basically sign up and get a video lesson by email, teaching you something new for 31 days straight. I've already signed up. Join me? App of the week Now, the Internet is full of fun new interesting things. But the amount of information can be overwhelming at times. And it takes time to browse through it. Lots of it. This is where Pocket comes in handy. Pocket is basically a save-for-later app, an I-don't-have-time-now-but-I'd-love-to-read-all-about-it-later kind of app. We've all been there. After clicking on a couple of links, we find an interesting article, site, lesson idea that we would love to read more about. But dinner has to be cooked, children need to be bathed, tests must be corrected and we have a life to live. So what do you do? It's impossible to remember every single site we visit. When you find that article you like so much, you just click on the Pocket add-on and it's automatically saved for you. If you've never heard of this app before and want to know how to use it, you can read a step by step guide here.   Wow! You've made it till the end of the newsletter in an age where attention span has significantly decreased (less than a goldfish's, I might add) You deserve an inspiring quote :) See you in 2 weeks! PS: Have you checked out my latest flyer? No? You're missing out! You can find it here. PS 2: If you know of a friend who would like to get this newsletter, you can forward them this email and they can sign up here.

"If you learn something new every day, you can teach something new every day." Martha Stewart