Screen recording is something I do A LOT … when you’re a math teacher and students want solutions, it’s easy to open up OneNote and write out the solution or work through a Desmos graphing or a Graspable Math solution, giving a spoken step-by-step as I go. Now, what I’d like to see is a […]
Author: Cal Armstrong
Yes! Oui! Si! 是的!
I use Microsoft Forms a fair bit but mostly it’s with my own students. But when I’m working with larger groups outside the school, it’s a nice option to offer a multi-lingual entry form (especially in Canada where the two official languages are English & French). Microsoft Forms adds a quick&easy way to add as […]
Fence me in!
A couple of weeks ago while flipping through tabs, I noticed a wee little fence on the top bar of my Firefox browser: My first thought was “hey that’s kinda a cute little emoji” … and then I wondered why it existed… and then I noticed it was in the upper right corner of my […]
Desmos Test Mode in Windows
Desmos, the popular online graphing calculator, has a Test Mode that locks the device into just the graphing calculator (Link: https://www.desmos.com/test-mode) . The challenge is that it’s only for Chromebooks & iPads. And I use a Windows10 device. So here’s a parallel solution : Windows TakeATest mode. TakeATest locks windows to one webpage — at […]
Voting in Outlook
While you can certainly use Microsoft Forms to collect information and put it into a spreadsheet easily, sometimes you just need a simple yes/no or single selection. And Outlook lets you do that with VOTING BUTTONS. The process is very (very) easy. Start by creating a new email. On the OPTIONS ribbon, click on Use […]
Simple subtitles
Every tv and streaming app in my house is set to show subtitles — I’m not hard of hearing, but I like keeping the text showing on the screen. It is an extraordinary boon, of course, when I’m watching something in another language — I know French, but it’s nice to be able to see […]
Microsoft Teams –> Your Files jump-off point
I used to suggest using Microsoft Delve as a jumping off point for your files — it was a smart system that highlighted what files you had been recently using but also what others was working on. But, as Microsoft Teams became a more common application for users, I thought I would highlight how it […]
#vnps’ing Trig Identities
So my class was working on Proving Trig Identities (not always the most popular — it’s the first time they really do a “proof” in our curriculum) and I didn’t want to have them work alone and I didn’t want them to work on all the same problems, so I collected a large number of […]
#vnps summary in #OneNote
So one of the things about #vnps (vertical non-permanent surfaces) in classes is that there is a lot of mathematical work, and a lot of discussion, as we develop the mathematical understanding throughout the class. What is missing is the summary & run-down after the class is over — that is, “the notes”. Not only […]
Read this email
My school has an unproductive relationship with email; it’s woefully abused and so no one really reads email since they’re overwhelmed with it. If you didn’t ruthlessly triage you’d never get through to the actual important ones. (A few good reminders are here: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-email ) Back when I did a leadership role, in order to […]