Tuesday, December 23, 2014

We're BACK (in Early January 2015!) #EduLS

Well I am so thrilled to announce that the #SummerLS was nominated for an EduBlog award for Best Open PD, and WON!!!

Because of that exciting turn of events I have been inspired to bring back the #SummerLS to be a year round learning series, now re-branded as the "Educator Learning Series" or #EduLS.

You can find the new challenges, here: http://educatorlearningseries.blogspot.com

Happy Learning, and Happy New Year!

Friday, August 15, 2014

Challenge Week 11

Well, we've reached the end of our #SummerLS.  I can't express enough what an experience this has been from me.  From originally planning this for my staff of 36, to now having over 2,000 people from 8 different countries participate.

Thank you each and every one for learning this summer.  I DO plan on continuing this once a month throughout the school year (on this same blog), and we'll continue to use the same hashtag :)

This week's final challenge is brought to you by.....me!  And it's all about Google Hangouts!

You can watch the video challenge HERE.

When you're done with the challenge you can fill out THIS Google Form

(***On a side note: lots of people asked about not having a Google Form to fill out last week.  The goal was to have you tweet your Classroom Champions learning.  BUT I went ahead and created THIS Google Form for you to fill out from last week's challenge!)

See you online!


***like the video said, if you would like notifications of upcoming challenges, go to our first post and fill out the Google form (if you haven't already; most have)

Friday, August 8, 2014

Challenge Week 10

We are in our second to last #SummerLS Challenge!  Thank you everyone for following and learning with us.

This week's challenge is one that is very near and dear to my heart.  Almost 2 years ago I connected with an organzation called Classroom Champions.  This is an organization that I continue to work with to this day because of what they seek to do.  You can read several of my blog posts that talk about things my class was able to do by being a part of Classroom Champions.  You can read one HERE.  And if you read THIS post you can see how our athlete, Paralympic Gold Medalist Joshua Sweeney, changed an entire campus.

My good friend, and Olypmic Gold Medalist, Steve Mesler, co-found Classroom Champions with his sister Leigh.

And this week's challenge comes straight from Steve Mesler himself.  You can watch his video challenge HERE.

How do you complete this challenge?  Excatly what the video says, you watch his TED Talk, watch a Goal Setting video by one of two olympic atheletes, and then TWEET him and Classroom Champions about your learning using the #SummerLS hashtag.

Also, make sure you add Classroom Champions to your circle on Google+ to follow the journey of Paralympic Medalist Lex Gillette as he uses Google Glass this year to teach even more kids!

I can't wait to see the ideas you guys come up with!

Happy Learning!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Challenge Week 9

We're at week 9!  And also, August 1!  Man the time has flown by!  It looks like we only have 2 more weeks of the #SummerLS left.  But don't fret.  My plan is to continue doing challenges, once a month, throughout the school year.

First of all, if you missed Erin Klein's Classroom Design webinar last week, you can watch it HERE.

Here's this week's challenges...

Part 1:

This week's first challenge comes from Amber Teamann in Texas.  Her video challenge is about Smore.  A great free tool that allows you to make some cool online newsletters and such.  You can watch her video HERE.

Her next part covers how she has used Twitter on her campus as an administrator and the neat little function called "Fast Follow".  You'll definitely want to read THIS post to learn more!

Your challenge this week is to create your own Smore, and then to read Amber's blog post (and leave a comment).  Once completed you can fill out THIS Google Form.

Part 2:

I come across many great resources, but one of my favorite is Sophia.  Sophia is an online platform that I use for flipping my classroom.  They have over 40,000 videos already made by other educators.  Plus Bill Nye (the Science Guy) is a Sophia partner and has exclusive content on their site!

The best part?  Sophia has partnered with Capella University to offer FREE certifications.  You can get Flipped Classroom Certified, iPad Certified, Chrome Classroom Certified, or Virtual Classroom Certified....ALL FOR FREE!!!  And you get a nifty little certificate and t-shirt out of it! Go HERE to see the certifications.

What is your challenge this week?  Create a Sophia account, play around on the website, and choose 1 (or more) of the certifications to complete.  Once you've completed your certification take a picture with your certificate and tweet it to the #SummerLS hashtag.  Then fill out THIS Google Form.



Happy learning this week!  Remember to continue to tweet all your learning with the #SummerLS hashtag!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Challenge Week 8

Can you believe it?  We're already at the final full week of July!  I'm really excited about sharing the challenges with you this week.

As you know, since I started doing this Summer Learning series 8 weeks ago,  I've constantly wanted to show the power of connection.  The power of social media.  Every week I've brought you challenges and videos made by my friends.  And the coolest part?  Every single challenge, every single week, is by someone who I met online through Twitter.

This week is a 3-parter!  Don't worry, it's not a ton of work :) There's just so much goodness to share this week!  And remember TWEET out your learning using the #SummerLS hashtag!

Part 1:

My good friend Erin Klein (the author of Kleinspiration) is the educator bringing you the first challenge for this week.  It's all about Classroom Design!! You can watch here challenge video HERE.

The first part of the challenge is to sign up for Erin's FREE Webinar happening this Tuesday at 2pm CST.  You can sign up for the Webinar HERE.

The second part of Erin's challenge is to visit Classroom Cribs and sign up for the email list serve to know when the website launches!

Once you've signed up for Erin's webinar and the Classroom Cribs email list serve fill out THIS Google Form.

Part 2:

Two weeks ago, Chris Kesler made you a video teaching you about Google Forms.  Well this week my good friend (and fellow Tech NinjaStacey Huffine has created you a video teaching you some tips and tricks about Google Docs.  If you haven't used, or aren't using, Google Docs, I can't express enough how much easier my life has become since using all the great Google Drive tools!

You can watch Stacey's video HERE.

Your challenge this week is to create a Google Doc, share it with someone, and use some of the tips/tricks Stacey has shown you!  Once you've done that fill out THIS Google Form.

Part 3:

About a year ago I read a post that Angela Maiers had shared, written by Arin Kress.  Before I share with you Arin's post, I wanted to first share with you the video she has made for you for the third part of this week's challenge.  You can watch Arin's video HERE.

The post that Arin wrote is HERE and that is where you can read the letter she sent out to her students.

In Arin's video she also mentions Angela's #YouMatter TED Talk.  You can find that TED talk HERE.

I can't express enough how much this part means to me.  I myself wrote a letter like this to my students last year.  The last day of school I had a very tearful exchange with a parent about the huge impact that one little letter had.  You can read about my experience HERE.

Once you've completed Arin's challenge and wrote your own letter to your future students fill out THIS Google Form.


Thank you so much for joining us each and every week!  Have fun learning this week and remember TWEET out your learning using the #SummerLS hashtag!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Challenge Week 7

Week 7 is upon us!  What an exciting journey this has been so far.  It's so much fun as I travel around the country this summer and find people who are completing the #SummerLS with us!  To see this movement of teachers, passionate about learning, is such a great feeling!

I know many of you are behind a challenge or two, so this week is going to be a fairly easy week to give you a little time to catch up, but also still give you a challenge!

Part 1:

About a year ago I learned about this "walkie-talkie" kind of app called Voxer.  It took me quite a while to understand the value or how to really use it, but now I'm addicted to it!

My good friend, Ben Gilpin, has made a quick TouchCast video to explain Voxer a little more with some ideas on how you can use it!  You can find that video HERE.

So your challenge this week is download Voxer and start a conversation with someone in your PLN.  Ben shared his Voxer contact information in the video and mine is tneslo811.  And HERE is an entire list of people in education on Voxer.

Once you've completed this challenge fill out the Google Form HERE.

Part 2 (optional):

Last week's challenge included learning about MakerSpaces.  You may have heard a book mentioned called "Invent to Learn".  Well there is now going to be a weekly book study/twitter chat that will be happening (#itlchat)!  It's a great opportunity to connect with and learn from others.  Emily Swenson and Michael Medvinsky are leading it and you can find more information HERE.

If you participate in the chat and read the book please fill out this Google Form HERE


Here's to another great week of learning!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Challenge Week 6

Wow, can you believe we’re already on Week 6 of our Summer Learning Series?  Time has just flown by!

I am absolutely loving watching the #SummerLS Hashtag and seeing the great learning and connecting that is taking place!

This week is another two-parter!

Part 1:

Every week you’ve heard me talk about filling out a Google Form after you were done completing a challenge.  Well my good friend Chris Kesler has created an AMAZING video teaching you all about Google Forms and some great things you can do with them.  So your first challenge is to watch Chris’s video, tweet to him one thing you learned, create your own Google Form, and then fill out the Google Form below.


HERE is the Google Form to fill out after you’ve completed this challenge.

Part 2:

Jessica Allen is one of the smartest people I know!  We actually interviewed her on this week’s episode of EduAllStars, which you can watch HERE.  But Jessica has done a lot of work with Makerspaces.  So your challenge for part two is to visit Jessica’s blog and learn all about this INCREDIBLE idea!  Go HERE to see Jessica’s challenge (and make sure you tweet her about what you’re learning)

When you’ve completed Jessica’s challenge fill out this quick Google Form HERE.

So there you go!  There’s your challenge for this week!  Happy Learning #SummerLS crew! (and all previous challenges are listed below :))