Introducing..... Malchow's Tech Bytes!

 to be starting a weekly Tech Bytes newsletter for my colleagues thanks to inspiration from two of my Apple Distinguished Educator buddies, Traci Piltz (@TraciPiltz) and Ann Kozma (@annkozma723)!

Being in a position where I am shared between two buildings, I often times found myself pondering, "Did I share that tidbit with Teacher A in Building B?" or "Did I share it with Teacher B in Building A?" Oy vey! I'm a pretty organized person, but always feel badly if I've got something great to share and then get sidetracked with a student question, technology disaster, phone call, or any other number of diversion-based issues! So..... this year, in addition to meeting with teams and making my way around to check in, I wanted to be sure I also had an outlet to get tips, tricks, links and just plain 'ole great resources out to everyone even if I wasn't able to catch them to chat. In turn, I'm hoping that there will be something that will pique peoples' interest from time to time and provide them with some resources and collaboration opportunities that they maybe didn't realize even existed.  Some of my favorite techie buddies do "newsletters" like this and have always loved reading their tips, so with that goal in mind and passion to share, Malchow's Tech Bytes was born!!!

Want to check it out, click on the link below the image below.  

http://bit.ly/malchowstechbytes

Like what you see and want to be notified when the weekly newsletter comes out? Sign up on the Google Form below and I'll add you to my mailing list! 

Have a fantastic resource that you feel would be a great item to add to a future newsletter? Feel free to send it my way!

Here's hoping everyone has a  FANTASTIC school year!!!!

Back to School with Seesaw

For the past two years, one of my all time favorite apps has been Seesaw. It never ceases to amaze me the ways it can be used to engage learning and document students growth! If you've not tried it out, I HIGHLY encourage you to jump in and give it a try. You can't go wrong for free!!!

That's what I, and many other teachers in our district have said for the past two years. This year though, our district has jumped on the Seesaw boat and is purchasing Seesaw for Schools for our elementary buildings. I couldn't be more thrilled. With this, I want to see more parents connected to their child's learning. In today's day and age, there's no reason that you can't be a part of your child's learning even if you can't volunteer at school or attend evening functions. With Seesaw it's a matter of getting a notification and seeing and responding to your child in real time! It's so easy and students absolutely LOVE having an authentic audience outside of the school walls!

Our Open House is this coming Tuesday and in hopes of connecting as many parents as possible, I've created this note for parents which really sums up how I feel about Seesaw as well as a couple of step-by-step workflow posters to set out for parents.

If you think these may be something that would work for you, please feel free to download them here.

It's going to be a JOLLY great year!

Wow! Where did summer go? I can't believe that a new school year is again just around the corner. It's been an amazing summer of travel and family time and although I'm sad to give up the flexibility that summer brings, I'm super excited to head back to school! 

My schedule has changed a bit this year and we have a lot of new staff in one of my buildings so I wanted to get my schedule out there with more than an email, so I once again found myself perusing the candy aisle looking for a small little treat to share with my colleagues. After much deliberation and several different candy purchases, I finally settled on Jolly Ranchers (the other little treats will be used throughout the year if I can keep them hidden away from my boys)

I bought 500 of these great little jewelry-sized bags last year. They perfectly hold 3 Jolly Ranchers in each little bag. Then I created a tag that has my schedule on it to attach to each one. I printed mine on cardstock, cut them out and stapled them to the bags. The cards are approx 2" x 3".  I'm planning to put them in each teacher's mailbox on the first day back and then follow up with my personal chit-chats. 

Here is the link to the cards if you're interested- Welcome Back Jolly Rancher link. You'll be prompted to make a copy and then you can customize to your liking. If you need bags, you can find a variety of different sized ones on Amazon, click here.

Have a great school year!!!!

Back to School with #EpicPals

I can hardly believe it's back to school time again! Summer always seems to go by so fast and I've only gotten through about half of this summer's to-do list. Hoping to find some time to get through a few more items while also getting in some more quality family time!

In the meantime, Bobbi and I are ready for another great year of EpicPals! We will again be offering you a monthly primary AND intermediate version so you can personalize to the needs of your students. Each month, we will tweet out the link as well as post it here on the blog.  Here is the link for September's EpicPals Google Doc with this month's books and QR codes/links to the Padlet boards.

New this year, we also have a special Global Read Aloud (#GRA17) edition of EpicPals as well. Stay tuned for details about what we have in store! If you're not familiar with Pernille Ripp's Global Read Aloud project, I highly encourage you to check it out; such a wonderful way to share quality literature with your students while also making global connections with your class.

If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can find both of us on Twitter- @smalchow and @bhopteacher

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New to EpicPals and need some additional information? If so, head on over the the #EpicPals page at the top of the blog for additional information.