End of Semester Digital Reflection

Edmodo Survey= $ to Explore New Apps

Just thought I'd share something I discovered the other day:

When I was exploring around and looking at the apps on Edmodo a link/info bar came up saying that I could get $50 of Edmodo app credits if I took a short survey for them. I was hesitant but did it--and got $50 work of free credits. No joke! Pretty sweet huh? The only caveat is that they expire if you don't spend them (after 14 days I think?). I figured it'd be a great way for me to explore some of the apps that I may want to use in the classroom without feeling ripped off if it's not what I wanted it to be. I've downloaded a bunch of them and have a year to play around with them before they need to be renewed--plenty of time to see if they're worth the money or not. This could be a great option for those teachers already using Edmodo to see what works for them without using department money or worse, their own personal money, to do it.

**If you don't currently have classes/groups set up on Edmodo you'll need to create one that you are in charge of in order to have something to add the apps to**

Hopefully this works for you too and you can use it! :D

#LangChat-ing It Up...Again!

A recap of my second educational chat on Twitter, told through Storify. (A follow up to my first #langchat experience)

My Twenty-Percent Project: Part 3

Oh Google Calendar, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Part 3 in my twenty-percent project involved learning about the finer details of Google Calendar, an app that I honestly can't live without! (To check out previous reflections see Part 1 here & Part 2 here). This was approximately a 3 hour tutorial that I did over the span of a few days since I felt fairly comfortable with the program and wasn't worried about forgetting the finer details as much. I use my Google calendars daily, to the point where they have completely replaced all of my other planners/agenda books for almost two years now.

Some of my favorite aspects of Google Calendar are:

• Integration with my smartphone & tablet. 
• Access to up-to-date information or changes on any of my devices, no matter where I am
• Ability to create multiple calendars under the same account for different purposes, and to turn each one on or off as needed for clarity/visibility
• Color coding for calendars and individual events, to quickly see what the event pertains to
• Share calendars with multiple people so they can view, edit, manage sharing, or all of the above (great for the joint calendar I have with my husband to manage family events)
• Can add guests to an event without sharing your whole calendar with them
• Easy embed capabilities (awesome for class homework calendars, etc)
• Event reminder notifications (on screen, SMS, email)
• Can receive daily emails of that day's agenda in one concise list

There are other great reasons too, but I'll stop there in order to not sound like the tutorial :) I took the test, did well, and realized I'm nothing if not consistant with the score. (It's still driving me crazy that I don't know what questions I miss and why!) 

Next step: Google Docs. That one's going to be intense, but I'm looking forward to it!