Soft Technology

Stephanie Filardo: Photo credit Valerie Callan Photography Guest Blog Post by Stephanie Filardo, follow Stephanie's blog here and find her on Twitter here .  Stephanie is currently a teacher in St. Louis, Missouri I remember getting papers back with stickers and stamps as a kid.  While I may not remember the specific assignments and what I learned from them, but I remember how it made me  feel  when I saw a sticker or stamp on them.  While my teachers were just taking stickers from a page and adhering them to all of the student papers, it meant something because they took them time to do it.  They didn't have to do it, they  cared  enough to do it.  It meant something to read "Excellent!" "Great job!" "A+!" and even better when it was the coveted scratch-n-sniff sticker! This idea is brought to you by the wonderful integration of Google Docs and Google Keep.  Enjoy! Today, I'm excited to tell you about DocStickers! If you can give me 90...

Hi there, educators! I hope you enjoy this tutorial showing how to make certificates using Autocrat 3.0, which is quite different, and I think much easier, than the previous version. If you like it, please share it with others on social media, subscribe to you YouTube channel or leave a comment. Thanks in advance!

Google Drawing Templates: Please do not request access, open the template you want and create a copy. Thanks to everyone who contributed to these set! Eric Curts , Kasey Bell , and Matt Miller . http://bit.ly/GoogleDrawingTemplates

By Guest Blogger Carlos from Grad Gopher (P.S. This is NOT a paid post! I asked Carlos to write this for us because Grad Gopher is going to save you TIME and make sure you get all your DATA. It really is AMAZING.) Our new, game-changing software GradGopher.com was built out of the frustration of teachers and students looking to save their information with no easy solution. GradGopher.com copies your Google Drive (Shared & Owned files), Gmail emails (with attachments), Contacts, and Calendar events to another Google account of your choosing and it only takes a minute to set up! Unlike Google Takeout, GradGopher copies all the files shared with you!  GradGopher saves you a ton of time!  “GradGopher literally saved me about 40-50 hours worth of manual labor. I can't say enough about this. It is really everything you hoped for and more.” - Colin Davitt GradGopher puts all your stuff in folders just like it was in your school account, all your organization is saved!  Grad...

This video seeks to answer the #1 question I get about Project Based Learning, and that is, "Am I Doing This Right?!?" The question speaks to the integrity of my favorite people, educators, and their desire to do the best they can by the students they teach. I hope this video helps you know where to focus your energy when you are trying to shift your teaching practices. Special (and HUGE) thanks to my colleague Kristy Edgar for the amazing animations, graphics, and visuals for this video. She made a simple soundtrack come alive and be entertaining.

Until I started researching for this infographic, I didn't even know some of these handy URLs existed. Did you? Do you have one to add? Let me know in the comments! Thanks, Amy Version 4... Download various versions of this file here

Teachers who understand learning intentionally plan for student engagement. They realize it's not something that happens without work, but neither is learning.

You may have noticed some pretty significant changes to Google Drive lately, but if you haven't, no doubt you will as you begin the 2014-15 school year. Here's a great overview from Alice Keeler's blog and here's one in video form from me. Hope these help you get started on the right foot!

Tell students what engagement is. Sometimes they don't know what it is or that they're supposed to be engaged. When they know, they can help teachers design engaging work. Engagement means students are . . . attentive persistent and committed Students who find value in their work persist even when it's difficult.