This year we launched our new technology-centered professional learning program: There's a Badge for That! PD badges for learning and trying new things in your classroom.

In our inaugural year, we awarded 99 Badges... That is right, 99! We had 68 people earn at least one badge this year. Pretty Exciting! Now, we are entering those individuals into a drawing to win some swag. Our grand prize winner will get a teacher Chromebook



We have created a portal to check on the available badges, get details on how to apply for them, and track your badges. You can find that here on the blog:


We can't wait to see what we make available for next year and see some fresh faces in our There's a Badge for That! Program.

Apparently, you can buy really expensive Golden Wrapped Pears from Harry and David or you can use Pear Deck's amazing Flashcard Factory or Google Slides add on and get an even more fantastic pear for free.

Introducing the GOLDEN PEAR BADGE! Use either the Pear Deck Flashcard Factory or the Pear Deck add on for Google Slides to create an engaging activity for students to use in your classroom. Submit a quick reflection and share your file here to earn your badge:https://goo.gl/forms/WZIQAa72GBz0bkVp2

Pear Deck- Flashcard Factory

Use Pear Deck's flashcard factory to turn vocabulary review into an immersive learning experience for students. You supply the terms for students, they draw the definition and provide an example and voila - Flashcards! You can then import the set right into Quizlet and supply students with the study set for review. AMAZING!

1. Set up the terms you want students to use https://app.peardeck.com (you do not need an upgraded account)
2. Start The factory - Students follow on the screen.
3. Students build their examples and drawings for their vocabulary terms.
4. As a class, you vote for your favorite cards and teams get points
5. You can export your terms right to Quizlet
6. Your Pear Deck Vocab lists save directly to your Google Drive



We will walk you through the whole process start to finish!

Pear Deck - Google Slides Add On

Use Pear Deck add on in slides to add questions and activities directly into your lessons.
1. Go to Google Slides - Launch Add On
2. Choose a template slide- Feel free to edit them and add your own content
3. Present with Pear Deck - Choose whether students move through at their own pace or as a whole group

Quick overview video:



Google Slides + Pear Deck = Perfect Pear

Math Templates for Pear Deck

New badge opportunity coming your way!

Are you a high-flier gamifier? Have you gamified a unit or your entire class? We saw a ton of awesome gamified units come out of the Gamification Captivation CTOD course. If you turned those gamification dreams into a reality and gamified a unit, all you have to do is submit evidence that you finished a gamified unit or have gamified your class and are ready to continue the process by adding mechanics and elements to the game based on your own and student reflections.


 In order to qualify for High-Flier Gamifier Badge, you need to be on step five of the gamification process (shown on the left). Our CTOD class had everyone ending on step 3. Hopefully you have had enough time to test out your game in class, and if not, the badge will still be offered by the time you do.

To receive the badge, fill out this google form to show evidence of your gamified unit in action and your own reflection. If you successfully fill out each question in the form, you are a bona fide high-flier gamifier!

All badges in our "There's a Badge For That!" program can be used to win prizes, swag and bragging rights!

Check out the new Beta of Google Classroom Gradebook!

With Gradebook beta, teachers can:

- View and edit all student grades from a new Grades page.
- See overall grades and share them with students.
- Create weighted grade categories for overall grade calculations​.We have some Badge recipients!



Create Categories and Set Grade Settings

Ultimate Tweeter Badge

Jeff Green
Kate Gilmore
Jamie Miner
Laura Mayer
Angela Reichert
Christine Rice

Voice and Choice Guru!

Jenny Ames
Emilia Bovenzi
Diane Campbell
Courtney Fay
Colleen Grego
Jamie Hill
Coleen MacCracken
Scott Michel
Angela Reichert
Christine Rice
Laura Shellhammer
Jess Thompson
Natisha Wieser

Streamline Grading with Kami!

Catch up on Google EDU in 90

Googles Education Channel on YouTube will give you all you need to know from Tips to Tools and more!

Earn your Ultimate Tweeter Badge!

In the wake of our first CTOD Component: To Hilton and Beyond! We are offering your first opportunity to receive a badge.

To earn your badge by November 20th:

Participate in 1 twitter chat (See below)
Post at least one tweet per week about either something you are doing in your classroom, something that you learned from someone else, or a retweet of something that you found interesting.

Log all of your tweets on this twitter log and send it to Jacquie: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lGYX-fgNGc2WqW5ySaTThDl_-gUeIF4KYv6t0EOr9JU/copy


Earn your badge!

Twitter Chats

Twitter chats are an amazing opportunity to connect with other educators to talk about various aspects of education.

Use the second link to explore some of the twitter chats that are available and when they are. Couple of examples:
#OK2Ask (biweekly Thursday nights at 8:00 EST)
#edtechchat Meets Mondays at 5 p.m. PT /8 p.m. ET
#FlipClass Flipped Class Chat on Monday's at 8:00 EST

Choose a chat that peaks your interest and tune into it. I would recommend using tweetdeck. Laura has a great video, the beginning is short on set up and organization, but she also screencasts a whole chat so if you want to see what it looks like this is a great resource:




Here is nice calendar of Twitter chats: https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar


Resources:
All about hashtags and twitter chats: https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-twitter-chats/
40 Twitter Chats worth your time: https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=7

Set up Tweetdeck and Hashtags: