Chat with Sandy and Karen

Hello listeners!

Today we will chat with John Woodward, of Texas, about teaching using digital learning. As we finish up this year, what are some lessons we learned and what helped our educators teach and our students have a successful year?  

Here are John's social media posts and a link to his podcast:

Twitter: @johnewoodward

Instagram: @johnwoodwarddlc

Anchor Podcast page: https://anchor.fm/tisddl/ 

Temple ISD Twitter account: @DigitalTISD

As always, we will discuss anything and everything ed tech on both sides of the pond!  Thank you for joining us and sharing the podcast with your friends.  

Best,  

Sandy and Karen

Welcome listeners!

Today we present an encouraging conversation with Dr. John Spencer, creator and author. He speaks about the importance of allowing students to explore their ideas, and learn how to learn. John has authored two books with A.J. Juliani:

• Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student
• Empower, What Happens when Students Own their Learning

You can find more information about problem based learning (PBL) on his website: https://spencerauthor.com/ 

Finally, you can see his social media posts on Twitter, etc. @spencerideas 

As always, we appreciate a share and a subscribe. 

Regards,

Sandy and Karen

Welcome Joe Sanfelippo!

This chat was a lot of fun because of the realistic, helpful attitude and humor that Joe brings to the party. Thank you for sharing about your book, Lead from Where you are. 

The book is divided into three parts examining the Why, the What, and the How of leadership. Plus, there are action questions at the end of each chapter to help us reflect and put our leadership skills into practice. I loved this book - he even talked about his little nephew Patrick. Most. adorable.

It is important to recognize, acknowledge, and extend the good things that happen in your school environment. 

Some quotes from the text we discuss: 

"Pick a starting and ending point." (to your day) Do not wear yourself out.

"Start and end your day with joy." This helps the family you go home to; as well as it allows you to end your day on a positive note.

There is much more to learn, but Sandy and I hope you enjoy the discussion so far. 

Best Regards,

Sandy and Karen

Edpuzzle Notes for podcast

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fwpe8fAmBPvrPRG0u5I3NeYgaIc3AHe46G-M5Ov2R3g/edit

How to sign up.

School account which is integrated with Canvas

Search for content

Discover,- Search bar -

YouTube tab

You can also filter videos by your subject area

My School tab, which allows teachers to collaborate

Community - which includes other teachers in your subject area

Most exciting is that you can upload your own videos!

Demonstration: I invited Sandy to my class.

Share her screen. I assign the 1 minute box shadow video.

Show screen shot

She answers the questions while showing screen so people see what happens on the student side.

Live mode! (show in teacher account)

What do we like about it? Accountability, real-time updates, and I can use my own videos.

Pricing: https://edpuzzle.com/pricing

Edpuzzle Notes for podcast 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fwpe8fAmBPvrPRG0u5I3NeYgaIc3AHe46G-M5Ov2R3g/edit    

How to sign up. 

School account which is integrated with Canvas     

    Search for content     

    Discover,- Search bar -      

    YouTube tab 

You can also filter videos by your subject area     

    My School tab, which allows teachers to collaborate     

    Community - which includes other teachers in your subject area 

Most exciting is that you can upload your own videos!  

Demonstration: I invited Sandy to my class. 

Share her screen. I assign the 1 minute box shadow video.  

Show screen shot  

She answers the questions while showing screen so people see what happens on the student side.  

Live mode! (show in teacher account)  

What do we like about it? Accountability, real-time updates, and I can use my own videos.  

Pricing: https://edpuzzle.com/pricing

Welcome to this episode of Chat with Sandy and Karen. 

It is a new year, with new challenges facing education - all stakeholders. Today we chat about what are some things that help, and what are the things that surprised us about teaching in the time of COVID-19. 

Were we ready? The virus came on the scene in 2019, now in 2022 are we more prepared or merely aware of more challenges?

We would love to hear from you on social media @chatwSK1. What are your experiences and thoughts?

We appreciate you!

Sandy and Karen

Hello Listeners,

Sandy and I would like to thank every one of you for your contributions and encouragement this year. This week we both have recorded a message for you. We hope you are able to have a restful break and return to your work refreshed and full of inspiration.

Best to you and your loved ones,

Sandy and Karen

Let's get chill, listeners. 

Mel is an Australian Mathematics teacher teaching IB MYP & DP Mathematics in Cali, Colombia. Previously, she taught in Taiwan (for 5 years) and Australia. Mel is a GlobalGEG Leader, and an ambassador for a few things. She enjoys tennis, traveling, exploring and connecting :)

Let's chat about growth, challenges, and living internationally. Welcome @fungooli to our podcast, we look forward to hearing you! 

Sandy and Karen

Hello listeners!  Today Sandy and I will be talking about what it is like to move to another country to live. Here are some of our questions: 

What is it like to move to another country? 

What new culture have you experienced? 

What American culture have you discovered here, or implemented? 

How have you experienced the cold and darkness? 

What advice would you give yourself now if you had to take time back 1 year? 

Would you / could you move to another country following this? 

Any experiences of your journey you would like to share with our listeners?  

Perhaps the listeners have some comments or experience you would like to share. Please do! 

Thank you for listening and sharing the channel. 

Sandy and Karen

We had an interesting chat about new teacher preparations, substitute teacher experience, and teaching digitally. Our teacher friend Emil first visited back in episode 24. He has since become a good friend and trusted colleague at Amerikanska Gymnasiet here in Sweden.   

We thought you would enjoy this flash from the past because the content is certainly relevant for many of us who are teaching face-to-face and digitally.  

Thank  you for listening and sharing the podcast, 

Sandy and Karen

Hello there!

Join us as we chat with Fonz about sparking creativity. Part of being an educator is appreciating the creativity and professionals around us. We had such a good time chatting with him, we wanted to share it with you again. 

Here is where you can keep up to date with his latest challenges and projects:

My EdTechLife  https://twitter.com/MyEdTechLife 

Twitter   https://twitter.com/TechTeacher1381 

Wakelet  https://wakelet.com/@TechTeacher1381

Instagram    https://www.instagram.com/techteacher1381/ 

YouTube    www.youtube.com/TechTeacher1381www.myedtech.life

LinkedIn   https://www.linkedin.com/in/amendoza1381/

Thank you for your time and we appreciate your return each week! Feel free to share with other likeminded folks.

Best to you, Sandy and Karen

It is close to the end of the month of October, a chill is in the air, and educators are realizing what a challenge this year has been. Sometimes we go through a few spooky situations. Sandy and I hope you will enjoy this episode we are bringing back from last year, October 2020. Here's to a productive fall, and a well-deserved break very soon.

Hello listeners!

Learning languages is such an adventure! Today we are talking with Francesca about learning languages Italian, French, and Swedish. What is it like to learn a language as an adult?

Thank you for joining us for season 2. Sandy and I are very happy to share this time with you and our special guests. 

Enjoy the listen and please share it with others.

Sandy and Karen

Sandy and I have so enjoyed chatting with our guests during our first season of the podcast. We can't wait to see who will sit in with us in season 2.  Thank you to all our guests, you have made our lives richer and given us knowledge to grow on. 

We are planning several series and special days for you as we start the 2021-2022 school year. 

The links below are all the guests we have had so far - so you don't have to scroll through the list! 

Welcome to today's chat!  

Fonz is so full of life and positivity, he wants to share all the edtech encouragement he has. Here is a bit of his information:  

"I am a Google Innovator, Podcaster, Instructional Technologist, EdTech Enthusiast that is fueled by caffeine! My mission is to inspire as many people to amplify creativity and share my passion for learning with them. What has helped me become successful up until now are three simple words, improvise, adapt, and overcome."  Ask me about why I started podcasting, it turned into my innovator project and I am now on a creative journey to create one new thing every day.  Here are the social media links where you can find information about his projects: 

https://twitter.com/MyEdTechLife https://twitter.com/TechTeacher1381 https://twitter.com/TechTeacher1381 https://www.instagram.com/techteacher1381/ www.youtube.com/TechTeacher1381www.myedtech.life  

Thank you for your time, we appreciate your return each week! Feel free to share with other likeminded folks. 

Best to you,

Sandy and Karen

Have a wonderful idea... working on your project... half way done and then, BOOM - the project has gone another direction? Carlos will be talking about the benefits and limitations of pivoting your project without any intentions!

Follow Carlos on his social media accounts at: ACEd.Tech

Twitter, LinkedIn, & TikTok:  @eduGOOGdroid

I am Mr.G, I’m a Google for Education certified Trainer & Innovator. An exciting development from the last time I was here is that I started working on my Masters of Educational Technology. Instead of Mr.G, I’m looking forward to earning the title of Master G.

STUDENT’s Project (2nd Place): https://tinyurl.com/tyca21 

What prompted your pivot?

A pivot in life and in innovation. I enjoy being a teacher. However, I think I can have a better impact in students’ lives by becoming an educational technologist. Similarly, in my innovator academy, I had a great idea. I just didn’t know how to bring it to completion. That doesn’t mean that I gave up on that idea, but I had another issue that came up. Teachers wanted to format text in google forms. So, I brought this idea up to Andrew Caffrey, who approved it. So, I pivoted in my innovator project. And I have finished.

You created something called G RTF.  Tell us about that.

It is a chrome extension that allows you to emphasize text where text is not allowed to be formatted but unicode text is allowed. With any new system, unicode is usually allowed. There may be some old systems which may not work, but for the purpose of my project, it works great.

How does it work?

Let me show you on twitter... (@eduGOOGdroid)

However, that is not the only way. My original intent was for education. But, anywhere where there is simple text and unicode is allowed, this will work. Let me create a Google Form and show you…

What prompted you to create this?

How might we help educators emphasize key points in Google Forms so students can better understand the instructions? By using a Chrome Extension that converts simple text to rich text, educators can create better instructions.

Originally, I thought about using it for Google Classroom. However, that update came. Google Forms, however, still has that problem.

How has this impacted teachers you know?

It is still a work in progress, however, the goal is for teachers to be able to properly explain 

How can others get involved in this?

Let’s go to the chrome web store...

Please add the links to any resources here.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/g-rtf-plain-to-rich-text/mogceicjmeopokfnobebnoepladkifdn

Thank you, Carlos! Best of luck to you in your educational and innovative pursuits! We are so thankful to have you on our podcast.

Best wishes,

Sandy and Karen

Hello listeners,

Don't you just love it when a former student comes back and visits? Teachers love this. This week, we are looking forward to chatting with Tanya Bott, one of Karen's students when she taught elementary students. We will chat about Tanya's job with NASA and girls in Technology. Tanya was such a delight. She is a wonderful role model for young women who want to pursue a career in science - any kind of science. You never know where your studies might lead you. 

Her Instagram connection is: @tanyabpaine

We were so excited to chat with Tanya about science and what it is like to work at NASA. Here are some of the things she shared with us:

• I’m from the central Texas area (Temple, to be exact). I spent my entire childhood there and after graduating high school moved to College Station to attend Texas A&M. I majored in Biomedical Sciences, which is essentially are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science (or both) to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health efforts.
• I loved studying the sciences, and I think a lot of that carried over from my natural interest in science ever since I was a young girl. I chose my major because when I first got to college, my goal was to go into medicine. Fast forward a couple years, I’m in my late junior year of college and I started to explore other fields and jobs that weren’t necessarily medicine, but where I could still use my degree and immerse myself in the scientific community. A few months post-college graduation, I stumbled upon a job opening within the Human Health and Performance Directorate at NASA supporting the Health and Medical Technical Authority, applied, and the rest is history.
• Despite the global pandemic impacting so many fields and industries, it’s been all gas and no brakes for human spaceflight. I’d love to share a little bit about my experience in the aerospace industry, not only as a woman but as someone who entered this world with a somewhat non-traditional background that one would expect from your typical NASA/Boeing/SpaceX/etc employee.
• As I mentioned, I was a BIMS major at Texas A&M so when I initially stumbled upon this job, I didn’t think I had a chance to work at NASA. Now, having been here for around 2 ½ years, I can honestly say that the work my team does is perhaps some of the most impactful at NASA, and it’s a huge honor.
• HH&P Vision and Mission: The Human Health and Performance Directorate (HH&P) at NASA is an organization primarily focused on humans living, working, and thriving in space, on the moon, and eventually Mars. Our mission is to lead the global spaceflight community in protecting astronaut health and ensuring human mission performance.
• We cover a number of areas of expertise, such as radiation, lighting, toxicology, microbiology, acoustics, astronaut strength/conditioning/rehab, anthropometry and biomechanics, and much more.

What are the current projects you’re working on?

• I want to encourage people who might not feel a pull towards engineering to not count yourself out! NASA, and aerospace in general, needs people with a variety of skills and backgrounds. In fact I’d even expand that to say that the broader science and technology community needs representation from women. I think about people like Marie Curie who contributed so much to finding the early treatments for cancer, Katherine Johnson who played a pivotal role in getting man to the moon, Rosalind Franklin who was the first to discover the double helix structure of DNA, just to name a few and I’m blown away by the magnitude of impact they made on the world.

We hope you enjoy this discussion. Thank you for listening and for spreading the word about today's chat.

Onward!

Sandy and Karen

Hello friends!

Come and hear our chat with Anissa. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.   

• Digital Storytelling Project → this is the major focus.  
• NAIDOC Week 4 – 11 July 2021 - https://www.naidoc.org.au/   aka. National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (timeline: https://www.naidoc.org.au/sites/default/files/files/NAIDOCHistoryTimeline.pdf) 
• The beautiful art in the thumbnail is the poster chosen for NAIDOC Week: it can be found here:   Poster for 2021 theme “Heal Country” https://www.naidoc.org.au/sites/default/files/styles/poster_thumbnail/public/photo-gallery-items/naidoc-2021-poster.jpg?itok=OtiTjS-u 
• More information about festivals here:  Cooee Festival - https://www.facebook.com/CooeeFestival/   
• First Australians - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7_1avVKDwc&list=PLRANZ3DScGr6uMnZ70ur5zlnlXGQT0SVe   

Anissa's social media contacts can be found here:  @Nyssa76Jones @IndigeniseEDU @GEG_Canberra 

IndigeniseEDU website: https://bit.ly/IndigeniseEDU   

We appreciate your visits and your Shares! 

Best, 

Sandy and Karen

Creating content with meaning is hard when the curriculum changes. Jacqueline has helped educators to identify some examples. Join us for a discussion of the process of writing a book during a pandemic, while working out all the details of life.  We've asked Jackie to come back and chat about her new book and learning/teaching during a pandemic. 

How do we keep the golden lessons we learned from the past?  

Also, check our Jacquelyn's book, Student-Centered Learning by Design. (ISBN-13: 978-1440877537)  

Welcome Jackie!  

@MsJWhiting (twitter) @jacqueylnwhiting (Instagram)

We had a lovely chat with Emma Cottier this morning. (@EmmaCottier (Twitter) @princessemmapie (Instagram)) 

Tell us about yourself, Emma! 

I am a Google Innovator that works full time in a middle school setting, in addition to being a consultant for The Cobblestone Collective- a Canadian company that provides engaging and hands-on learning experiences in a virtual environment.  

One of my current projects: C is for Create is a collection of projects from my middle school students over the last few years that demonstrate creative ways of showing one’s thinking, but also providing design techniques and tips at the same time. http://bit.ly/cisforcreate  

The second item is called “Skip the Google Slide Design” and this features more than fifty ready to use Google Slide templates for students of all ages. https://lnkd.in/g-e3Zvr

Feel free to share the Google Slide digital love and share these two resource links any way you like! I have also included one of my favourite Google Draw pieces for your enjoyment or resources! It works great to inspire students as to the creative possibilities of Google Draw or it can even be downloaded as .jpeg and printed as an 8” x 10” print to be framed for your wall!   

https://lnkd.in/gKRFhX6

 #creativity #SWE17 #googleedu #GoogleEI

Hello there!

Sandy and I decided to create a series of podcasts that describe the components of Google Workspace for Education. The episodes will not be long, but we wanted to include pertinent ways that we use Drive in our practice. If you are a pro at all the Googley goodness, you probably won't see anything new here, but we hope you enjoy a thoughtful discussion of what we use in Google Drive. 

If you want to see a video of this exact discussion, hop on over to our YouTube channel (It will be Episode 31, just like here): 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSExtxVAE9QXKm5-eJw7xQ

Topics we discuss: 

Settings in Drive

Techniques for organizing the Drive

The joys of the "Right Click" (or Control" key on a Mac)

Some of the Apps available within the Google Drive

We appreciate your time and hope you would consider subscribing and sharing the podcast.

Cheers,

Sandy and Karen

David is an educator based in Spain, he loves educating students, podcasting, hyperdocs, and exploring local cuisines. We had such an interesting time, please join us and invite others. 

Find out more about him at his social media sites: 

Twitter @dhotler 

www.HyperDocs.co/teachersgiveteachers

We appreciate you David, 

Sandy and Karen

Time flies when you are having fun, right? For Sandy and Karen the best part about hosting a podcast is meeting new people, laughing and learning from others who are passionate about technology and education. 

This is just the first edition of our podcast celebration - the first 6 months of clips and highlights and lessons learned. 

With educators, there is always a reason to celebrate. Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.

Regards,

Sandy and Karen

Emil is a newly qualified teacher (Fall 2020). He has a unique perspective of starting a teaching career in the middle of a pandemic. Join us for a chat with this charming young man! 

Enjoy, 

Sandy and Karen

This week Sandy and Karen chat with an awesome woman to complete our International Women's Month emphasis. Dr. Hines is an educator first, but also a scholar. We chat this week about how we can encourage girls to explore math, as well as some of our favorite tools we use for teaching online and face-to-face. She loves to use technology to promote a new culture of learning.

Here is some more information about Jasara Hines, PhD. 

Dr. Hines is a 17 year veteran educator, Google certified trainer and coach. She is the teacher and program coordinator at Thornwood high school in the south suburbs of Chicago. Proud UCF graduate. Ph.D. in Texts and Technology. Currently teaching English at Thornwood High School, as well as, AVID and AP Coordinator.   You can find her on social media at:  Twitter: @HinesJasara; Insta: dr.jazzie_est_1980  Some of today's content is about Jasara's favorite tools to use to teach remotely:  

Mote Wakelet https://wakelet.com/wake/tjp-ClhrcbJEQ_gAfRSi_ 

Peardeck https://www.peardeck.com/join 

Flipgrid http://flipgrid.com/ 

Edpuzzle https://edpuzzle.com/ 

Google slides https://www.google.com/slides/about/

AVID https://www.avid.org/what-avid-is

Welcome to our chat. Grab a cuppa, relax, and thank you for spending your time with us today.

Cheers!

Sandy and Karen

Welcome Shama, Anna, Yvonne, and Tracy.

In today's chat, our friends join us again for a discussion about the things that keep us going. Thank you for joining us as we celebrate International Women's Month. We are all located on several different continents, but share some of the same challenges and experiences. 

Grab a cuppa and join us,

Sandy and Karen

Today we chat with Mr. Luis Pertuz, our friend from Barranquilla, Colombia! Education is always on our agenda for discussion, but with Luis, there are lots of topics! Luis is a Technology Integrator at Colegio Marymount in Barranquilla, Colombia, Google Certified Innovator and Trainer. All around Geek and Co-Founder of GlobalGEG, (and a lover of Sunday afternoon BBQ).

You are welcome to join us, and we appreciate your time. 

You can find Luis on social media here: 

@pertuzluisfer

Today, join us for a chat with some parents at all levels of pandemic learning. How are parents doing? Are they coping with the technology and working from home? Enjoy our dose of reality, meet the parents!

Come listen to a chat with Jacquelyn Whiting! Here's an introduction:

Google Certified Innovator

Co-author of News Literacy: the keys to combating fake news

New book coming out in the next couple of months: Student-Centered Learning by Design

Information Literacy editor and webinar host for School Library Connection

I also share how I identify: I am a white, cisgender female; she/her are my preferred pronouns. I am straight, and a parent, and partner. And dog-mom :)

Connect with Jacquelyn on social media:

Twitter: @MsJWhiting

Insta: @jacqueylnwhiting

Today Sandy and Karen chat with Ms. Stephanie Howell, of Pickerington School District. She has a heart for education and students with special needs, as well as seeing teachers succeed in their goals. She discusses the Google Certified Coach curriculum and much more! 

Stephanie's social media contacts are:

Twitter - @mrshowell24

Instagram - @mrshowell24

Website - mrshowell24.com

As one of its founders, you can also find her actively involved with the Global GEG at https://www.globalgeg.org/ 

Thank you for joining us, please spread the word about our podcast. We appreciate you!

Sandy and Karen

This week, Sandy and Karen are chatting with Mr. Carlos Garza (@Mr.G#ACEdTech). Carlos is a technology teacher located in South Texas, @LaJoyaISD.  He is a family man who happens to love technology. He is a Google Certified Educator, Trainer, and Innovator (VIA20) - among his many other accomplishments. He loves to see students succeed in their own game of life. He is currently working on an interesting educational project that uses games and badging - both IRL and virtually to help students learn about adulthood! 

Welcome, Carlos!

Bruce is a long-time educator, media teacher, and co-author of Scripted https://www.scriptededucators.com/ He shares his story of remote teaching and producing a student-led newscast during these challenging times. In essence, "Start with what you have." Welcome, Bruce! @breicher