Weekly Reader

Why Your Whole Staff Should Be on Twitter
"Twitter in Elementary school started for me five years ago during my time as an Elementary Assistant Principal. Our goal was to bring our school community closer together and open up classroom doors to develop stronger relationships. We had great success and feedback from our school community, and when I became Principal three years ago I knew we could do it bigger and better!" - Adam Welcome, Finding Common Ground, 10/12/14

Not Just Another Notes App: Why You Should Use Google Keep
"When Google Keep launched, it never got the fanfare it deserved. The people that did review it compared it to all the wrong apps, like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. That's a shame, because a surprisingly good note taking app went under the radar, underrated for coming up short against contenders it wasn't designed to face. It's about time to give Google Keep a fair shake, see where it shines, and how it fits in with the competition." -- Alan Henry, LifeHacker, 5/22/13

Have Some Serious Classroom Fun With the ChatterPix App
"ChatterPix may be a very simple app but I can guarantee it will have you and your students rolling around on the floor in hysterics. The tagline for the app is: Chatterpix can make anything talk — pets, friends, doodles, and more; and it’s desperately amazing just how much fun making things talk can be. By using the app with any picture or photo you have, it’s as simple as drawing a line where you want the mouth and then recording your voice. ChatterPix will do the rest!"-- Nick Grantham, Fractus Learning, 10/23/14

"She Didn't Teach. We Had to Learn it Ourselves"
"Yesterday I got an email from a faculty member who had just received her spring semester student ratings (yes, in August, but that’s a topic for another post). She’d gotten one of those blistering student comments. “This teacher should not be paid. We had to teach ourselves in this course.” I remember another faculty member telling me about similar feedback, which was followed later with a comment about how the course “really made me think.” --  Maryellen Weimer, Teaching Professor Blog, 9/10/14