Why aren't you trying any of these "15 Things For All Teachers to Try"?

I love this latest drawing from Sylvia Duckworth, inspired by Austin Gagnier (@Austin_Gagnier8).  If only some would  try even one of these things.  It would be a step in the right direction. A seat on the right bus.  A paddle on the right waka.

They are all such powerful and useful things to do I wonder why some teachers are not.  And maybe it is that they don't get why.  Or maybe their school curriculum has been overcrowded with other things to do.  Or maybe they do not have enough devices in their classroom. Or maybe they are afraid.  Or maybe they do not have the support of the leadership of the school.
What is your reason for not doing any one of these things?  I would love to hear.

Forms - fit for purpose.

One of the most under-utilised apps of the google suite is the google form.  I blogged earlier this year on how I used a form, embedded in my appraisal site, to collect my professional development.  But the form doesn't have to be embedded in a site.
If you or your students have ipads or even phones in your class, download a QR code reader like Quickmark or QR Reader so that when you produce a QR code then the students can go straight to a form using the reader,
If your students have emails, it is easy to send a form out.  Otherwise share via a link or QR code.
A really good way to get a link or QR code is to get the Chrome extension goo.gl URL shortener.    When you have made the form live, you just click on the extension and you will get a short URL or a QR code to copy and paste, then print if you need to.
Like this:

Some ways that you could use a form include:

• Collect information from your parents, students or teachers using a form (emails, addresses, phone numbers etc) .  
• Take orders for a fundraiser (multiple collectors can get all of the orders in one place, easily)
• Organise your EOTC trip (eliminate the need for those long letters that get sent home)
• Write about an image (insert the image into the form)
• Fill in feedback for student voice on a unit of work
• Hand in work by inserting a link into the form
• Do teacher observations which a specific purpose in mind (or walk throughs)
• Flip your class (add a video)

These are just a few of the myriad of ways that teachers can use forms in their daily work.

The nicest thing about forms is the way that the responses are organised into a spreadsheet.  It is an awesome way to save time and organise.  There are also a number of add ons that you can put into the response spreadsheet to help you even more.  Like the Flubaroo add on which will self-mark short answer or multichoice questions for you.

Go on, give it a go!  You will love forms.

Recording my professional learning in one place

This year I have resolved to try to record my PLD (professional learning and development) a little more conscientiously, as I have ended up storing it all over the place in other years and it has been messy to retrieve. I have made a page on my 2015 Appraisal Site in order to do this. It looks like this.

I have a form on one side where I can enter the details of the PLD and the response spreadsheet on the otherside which includes links to the resources.  So far it has worked well as it is easy for me to open the site page and enter the information during the PLD session into the form but also view the previous PLD in the embedded spreadsheet.

If you are interested in this method, here is a video on how to do this.  I hope it is useful for you.