EPT 006: Monica Burns @classtechtips

Monica Burns is an EdTech & Curriculum Consultant, Blogger, and Apple Distinguished Educator, author, speaker and most importantly a teacher. In her role as a classroom teacher in general education and Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) settings, she used iPads one to one with her students while aligning her instruction to the Common Core State Standards. Monica has presented to teachers, administrators and tech-enthusiasts at numerous local and national conferences in addition to Apple Education events. She is a webinar host for SimpleK12 and a regular contributor to Edutopia and appoLearning.

“I grew up in a family of teachers and I knew right away, going into my undergraduate training, that I wanted to focus on elementary education.”

Monica loves to share the work that she is doing with teachers, especially her love of augmented reality and gamification. She loved teaching 5th graders - she says she get the best of both worlds, elementary and middle school.

"After teaching in general education and ICT classrooms, I had an opportunity to work one to one with iPads and the journey took off from there."

A recent app that Monica has discovered and loves sharing is Adobe Voice - it's free app, gives a lot of support - great introduction to a simple app from both a student and teacher perspective.

Monica talks about her new book that just launched in September of this year, "Using QR Codes to Energize Lessons & Differentiate Instruction”, including what kept Monica motivated and on track for completing this book.

She has recently written a post on edutopia on reaching families with scannable technology.

Monica has published quite a few books/compilations of blogposts as free resources on the iBookstore. She loves iBooks Author and uses it to publish her books as it adds so much more than just a regular book. It provides an interactive and actionable framework for readers to use. I recommend checking out some of her books to see it in action:

25 Ways to Become a Tech-Savvy Teacher
Using QR Codes to Energize Lessons & Differentiate Instruction 

Monica posts daily tech tips that are short, sweet and actionable on her blog, classtechtips.com

Another one of her favorite (and on of my favorite tools!) is Canva. I actually created the image you see at the top of this page using Canva.

"I am honored and excited to have been chosen to present it in SXSWedu, in March with Courtney Pepe, another apple distinguish educator."

Some tools recommended for teachers, especially focusing on "creation tools that can be used in lots of different environments". 


Explain Everything, Thing Link, Book Creator

Monica's been using Udemy to share her courses online and really likes the flexibility of the platform. Her courses can be found here (note that the Teach with Your iPad course has the 50% off applied to them that Monica graciously mentioned in the podcast - thanks!):
https://www.udemy.com/qr-codes/
https://www.udemy.com/classtechtips1/?couponCode=TY14

Burst of knowledge round:

An inspirational book that you read as a teenager or a young adult:
Monica Burns: The Malala Autobiography

A favorite blog that you read currently:
Monica Burns: I love Edutopia - it's one of my go to places. They've done a great

A favorite podcast or radio show that you read currently:
Monica Burns: I love the NPR app. I listen to Fresh Air.

Who do you turn to for advice?
Monica Burns: When it comes to Technology Integration, the Apple Distinguished educators community has been great.

What is the best piece of advice that you got early on in your career:Monica Burns: Never being afraid to ask for help was huge!

Something that not many people know about you:
Monica Burns: I love the National Park System!

Define success (in less than 10 words):
Monica Burns: Feeling empowered to know what questions to ask.

Define failure (in less than 10 words):
Monica Burns: Not feeling supported by your peers.

Two to three words that you dislike:
Monica Burns: Maybe - I think that for me decisiveness is very important - I had a teacher that would say "Get off the fence! Choose a side!"

Two to three words that you think have negative connotations but shouldn’t:
Monica Burns: Teacher sometimes, Feminist with local news coverage.

Define passion:
Monica Burns: Waking up and jumping into something and not overthinking something.

You can reach Monica in the following ways:

Website: http://www.classtechtips.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClassTechTips
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassTechTips
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/classtechtips/

Hope you enjoy this podcast episode!

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!

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