Chrome Extension: Desmos Graphing Calculator

Get the Chrome extension here

OSS (1 Sentence Summary): This is a beautifully elegant, user friendly, powerful graphing calculator provided at no cost!

The Good:

• Integrates with Google to login & option to save PDF of graph directly to Drive
• Good variety of sample graphs
• Interface is clean, interactive, and informative
• Full screen
• No advertisements
• Variety of functions - Trig, Stats, and Misc
• Export options - Email, Embed, Image URL
• Customize X,Y axis values and steps, add labels
• Projector mode enhances visibility
• Supports adding images 
• Color choice for lines & points
• Much more that I have yet to discover!

The Bad: 

• Background is only white 
• Not available offline (it is a website after all!)

Overall, this is an amazing free graphing calculator! 

Physics Toolbox & Mobile Sensors

I wanted to share some amazing resources I just learned about that further unlock the potential hidden in our mobile devices. Rather than sit here and retype what has already been thoughtfully laid out I will direct your attention thusly,

11 class activities with sensors you didn’t know your phone had

The Google Play store links for 

The Physics Toolbox Suite of Apps

Individual Sensor Apps

The G+ Community 

Mobile Sensor Apps for Learning

Unbelievable equipment disguised as entertainment right there in front us!
We can do amazing things and so can our students. What will you do?

Thank you to Matt Miller for taking the time to share!

Take the 2014 Speak Up Survey!

The Speak Up Survey is a national initiative of Project Tomorrow. Who is Project Tomorrow?

"The nations leading education nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that today’s students are well prepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world."

 The data collected represents the largest collection of authentic and unfiltered input from perspectives of Teachers, Students, Parents, & Community members. Your voice is important!

Indiana relies on the data to drive decisions for using technology in the education of our young people. Please take 10 minutes to share your voice by taking the survey.

2014 Speak Up Survey

Tell your friends!

Parent Access to MBC at GCS Now Available!

Google Calendar of Upcoming Edtech PD at GCS

Attention Greensburg Pirate Educators! 

October is Connected Educator Month!

Interested in meaningful, collaborative, and entertaining EdTech PD? Here are just a few upcoming opportunities to consider. 

You can bookmark the calendar here

The first set of opportunities will focus on what the SAMR model is and why it will help navigate the technology integration seas with greater comfort and confidence. Matt Miller is a Hoosier Spanish Teacher with an amazing blog illustrating his experience exploring how best to integrate technology into his class and curriculum. His post regarding his first exposure to the SAMR model is a good primer for what we'll explore throughout those opportunities.

All of the opportunities are voluntary and you can stay as long as you like. The TechTime sessions after school are open to anybody from any building. We will rotate the host building with each session so be sure to check the details of the event!

This is a very exciting year but I have found myself repeating a saying that I heard at a conference, and that is, "when  eating an elephant you still do it one bite at a time".  To put a a movie reference with it, I am reminded of "The Old 96er" from The Great Outdoors. I do love a good comedy.

Regardless of the reference the mindset applies to the daunting task ahead of us, and together we'll take it one bite at a time.

Too many passwords?

Google, My Big Campus, Twitter, Email.... the list of sites that require you to manage a username & password is never ending and continually growing. So what is the solution? Write them down? Choose not to use the site or service? Use the same password you always use? Make one up and then rely on 'forgot password'?

How about remembering one password and letting a password manager, such as LastPass take it from there.

The image below was created using Thinglink which is a great web service allowing interactive content to be embedded into photos and / or videos. Use the image to learn more about LastPass!

Interactive Image embedded with more information regarding LastPass

Something Fun

Thank you teachers! You all make a difference! Have an epic 2014-15! 

Pirate Pride.

And now something fun to start the new school year that is quickly approaching.

Here is a link to the full size image: PiratEdTech

After you have the file downloaded, Windows users can right-click on the file and select 'Set As Desktop Background'.