We made it to summer!!! Welcome to the first edition of my newsletter. It’s been a long time since I “blogged” or mused about education. I am writing this as much for me as for you. When I attended the University of Central Arkansas the College of Education (‘04) the motto was “teachers as reflective decision makers”. I have tried to keep that reflective practice through my career. In this newsletter I’ll do some reflecting and I will also share Edtech tips. I’ll also highlight friends and colleges you should be learning from. Finally, I have promised myself to limit my use of ! except when actually exclaiming. Making it to summer was worth all 3 exclamation points above.

What edtech tools got you through this school year? In my role as a tech coach these 4 tools made this year possible:

Bonus: Genially! I didn’t discover this tool until just a few weeks ago but I am already getting very into in. Below is a link to my profile were you can find some choice boards I have created as well as a Canvas LMS microsite tour for new users. Have you used Genially? I would love to see what you are creating and share it in a future newsletter.

I love using Canva for Education to communicate things in a beautiful way. I also love using it to create graphics to jazz up my Edtech tools and personalize them for the lesson or audience. With that in mind I have created this Wakelet of EdTech Tools Templates for Canva to make it easy for you to do the same.

This year on Global Accessibility Awareness Day I presented on the CanvasLMS live stream about how teachers can create accessible content. As a disabled person this is something near to my heart and lived experience. Building accessible digital content ensures that everyone has a good experience. Even if people do not have a disability they enjoy accessibility. If you use a mobile device or use captions on videos you enjoy accessibility.

You can watch the video of the live stream, as well have this accessibility checklist for you to reference when making content for your classroom.

Tisha Poncio is worth the follow on Twitter. Like me she loves Wakelet and uses it extensively with students. Watch her session from #WakeletCommunityWeek below. The 5 GIF story is definitely a strategy I want to try next year!

My friend Tom has a new edtech podcast. If you like google, especially Jamboard Tom is your guy. Listen to the episode below and meet Tom and hear about the demise of Google Expeditions.

Next week Ill be presenting at the following conferences: