Edublogs is, as the name suggests, a blog building system designed specifically for education. In fact this was built by teachers, for teachers. Although since that began back in 2005 it has grown and developed considerably.

It's worth noting that in more recent years the internet has begun to offer more ways to submit, showcase, share, and edit student work -- with many working with already setup LMS offerings. All that said, there is still a place for blogs that allow students to be digitally creative.

Blogs can also be helpful places for teachers and admins to share lesson, class, and institution-wide notices and feedback with ease, using a simple link. So could Edublogs help in your school?

What is Edublogs?

Edublogs has been around for so long that it has now been distilled into an easy-to-use and efficient way to create digital blogs for online sharing. Think Wordpress, but designed for teachers with far more controls.

The advantage of Edublogs over sites such as Wordpress is that this allows levels of control that provides greater security for student data and easier monitoring for teachers.

Available in both online web-based and app formats, this is widely accessible across devices. That can mean working on blogs in class as well as having the ability for students to make updates as and when they want outside of the classroom on their own devices.

Educators can use the commenting sections to provide feedback to students as well as a way to help inter-class communications -- but more on that below.

How does Edublogs work?

Edublogs follows a very basic and intuitive word processing-style blog creation process. As such, it should be pretty clear how to get going for even the most novice of web users -- so most young students can take to it very easily.

Both free and paid-for versions of the system are available, however, in both cases there is a student management system so teachers can control how students access the platform.

Once given access, students can begin creating their own blogs, allowing them to post and share online. This includes words, images, audio, and video content so it can be quite a rich final post if they put in the time and effort.

Students and teachers can use the blogs as a way to digitally submit work. This not only makes it easier to input and submit -- as well as grade -- but also to store for longer-term analysis. No more papers to work through, students can simply scroll or search back through their work as well as use that as a portfolio for future reference.

What are the best Edublogs features?

Edublogs is very easy to use, making it simple to transition to for teachers and students. Consequently, it can be more about the content being created rather than the platform itself -- like the most effective technology, it becomes forgotten when in use as you focus on what's being created without hindrance.

Since everything can be published online it makes for a simple way to share work, with a single link. The commenting boxes also allow feedback from teachers as well as fellow students, so it is not only possible but can be encouraged. 

The management tool allows teachers to look at the back-end of student blogs in order to jump between work easily. It also makes monitoring that comment-based feedback easier, allowing for an education in best digital communications practices to come about naturally through the use of the platform.

The addition of content filters and multiple privacy tools all help to add to the security for the protection of students and whatever they share.

Since most features are available for free and online, it should be possible for most teachers and students to access immediately without the need for anything else. 

The ability for teachers to leave feedback privately, only seen by them and the student, is an ideal way to guide students without having to make an issue out of every misstep.

How much does Edublogs cost?

Edublogs offers several tiers of options including Free, Pro and Custom.

Free is this way forever with no ads to worry about and all the student safety features in place. This includes 1GB of storage, the student management system, plus all the themes and plugins available.

The Pro version, at $39 per year, gets you 50GB of storage, search engine integration, visitor statistics, and email subscriptions.

The Custom version, aimed at schools and districts with a bespoke price, offers unlimited storage, single sign on, custom domains, and the choice of a local data center.

Edublogs best tips and tricks

Submit work
Ease students into use of the system by having them submit work, across subjects, using this platform so they get to grips with it without focusing on it too much.

Get creative
Have students go away and create their own blogs that show something personal so they can learn to express themselves -- perhaps using a word limit to encourage concision.

Mix it up
Have students comment on one another's posts -- allowing them to learn from each other, socialize digitally, and perfect their online communication styles.

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Summer is an opportunity for students to catch up or supplement their remote learning, or even pursue additional opportunities. These summer online learning programs also fill a gap that sometimes occurs over the summer months, and best of all, can be done at the comfort of home. 

15 Online Summer Learning Opportunities 

• BoomWriter Haunt - A summer writing club that relies on an interactive story-writing process to create entertaining collaborative stories. 
• Brain Chase - A five-week program for grades 2 to 8 featuring a treasure-hunt adventure that  includes work in math, reading, writing, and more, through watching animated episodes and solving education-based problems. 
• Coding With Kids - A live interactive summer camp program that teaches kids of all ages how to code using Scratch, Minecraft, and Python, among other tools.
• CodeWizardsHQ - Teacher-led instruction over a three-week course focused on coding and related activities.  
• Connected Camps - Learn STEM-based skills such as coding, problem-solving, and collaboration through activities such as esports, game design, and Minecraft. 
• Connections Learning - A collection of technology-related online courses from Pearson for math, reading, ELA, science, and social studies for grades K-8. 
• Edgenuity - A summer learning program for students K-12 that can be tailored for a district’s needs, including course expansion, credit recovery, intervention, and test readiness. 
• Fueleducation - Hundreds of classes in dozens of subjects for grades 6-12, including Advanced Placement and CTE electives such as veterinary science, fashion and interior design, game design, sports and entertainment marketing, and culinary arts. 
• GoNoodle (Camp GoNoodle) - A fun and free online program that offers learning through play and other movement or mindfulness activities. 
• ID Tech - An online STEM-focused program that teaches skills such as coding, game development, and robotics. 
• K5 Learning - An interactive reading and math program for grades K-5 that also provides real-time results, feedback, and detailed reports. 
• K12 - A robust online summer school program with dozens of core electives (history, science, literature, etc.) for students grades 6-12. 
• Outschool - More than 15,000 video classes led by qualified teachers on subjects ranging from core subjects to life skills, health and wellness, music, and international languages. 
• Time4Learning - A fun online program for grades PreK-8th in core subjects with a detailed curriculum in each area. 
• Treca - An eight-week course for grades 9-12 in a range of online courses such as math, science, and social studies. 

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

As many educators, students and their families are teaching and learning remotely, knowing where to turn for safe online research is essential. Here, in alphabetical order, are some safe search engines to start with.

Top 20 Safe Search Engines

Choosito - A National Science Foundation-funded search engine and digital library for students.

Classhook - Find educational videos from TV shows and movies that can be used for lessons on a wide range of topics.

Cybersleuth Kids - Great for finding student-friendly games, activities and clip art related to reading, math and more.

DinoSearch - A kid-friendly search engine that employs three filters to block inappropriate search results.

DOGOnews - Relying on a curated and COPPA-compliant database, DOGOnews offers reading material and assignments for grades K-8 that can then be integrated into Google Classroom, in addition to assessment and language/speech tools.

Famhoo - A family-friendly search engine that filters all content.

Google (safe search) - Google offers a safe search setting that can be set as the default for Firefox browsers.

The History Engine - A collection of thousands of historical “episodes” researched, written, and published by college students, who learn history in the process through doing the work of a historian.

Kiddle - A visual search engine specifically designed for kids.

Kidtopia - A COPPA/CIPA compliant search engine for students designed by school librarians.

Kid Rex - Designed around Google’s safe search with fun graphics, Kid Rex emphasizes kid-related web pages.

Lesson Planet - Ideal for teachers and parents searching for lessons and other education resources that can be shared with students.

Lumos Edsearch - Provides filtered educational resources, videos, apps, and more that have been vetted by teachers.

Nettrekker - A paid site for searching the web designed for both students and teachers.

Photos for Class - Creative Common-licensed images for the classroom that are cited appropriately.

Refseek - An academic search engine that indexes through five billions documents, including journals, encyclopedias, websites, and books.

Springo Kids - A fun visual search engine for kids in which results are divided into for over and under 8 years old, and are given in thumbnails.

Sweet Search - A group of more than 50 education experts (including librarians, researchers and teachers) evaluate content for this search engine.

Symbolab - A scientific search engine geared toward providing solutions for math and science problems.

Top Marks - Developed in the UK by teachers who have vetted all the content and results on this site, which cover a wide range of subjects.

A version of this article was cross posted at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

In self-paced learning, students approach lessons and content at their own speed. This approach is useful in supporting different learning styles, and can potentially help students better retain information. 

With the increased implementation of elearning and remote teaching, self-paced learning is becoming more and more prevalent.

To help students and educators, this alphabetical list offers some useful online resources that can be used for self-paced learning.

Top 15 Tools for Self-Paced Learning

Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. - Students can watch animated videos in numerous subjects and then follow up with brief assessments and quizzes.

Education Galaxy - A game-based learning platform for grades K-6 that covers a variety of topics. Also focuses on preparing students for state assessments.

Gimkit - A “game show for the classroom” in which students can collaborate and create quizzes that can then be taken from their own devices.

GrammarFlip - Students can improve their grammar and writing by watching educational videos and then completing interactive exercises.

Kialo Edu - A platform for educators to gauge student understanding and differentiate instruction through collaborative discussions. Helps to build critical thinking and reasoning skills.

Knoword - A vocabulary-building tool with a teacher portal through which educators can create their own topic-themed word packs and track student progress.

Makerdemy - Designed to help students boost their programming and coding skills at their own pace and in a variety of languages (i.e. Raspberry Pi, Google Assistant, etc.).

Mathigon - An innovative interactive math textbook that serves as a personal tutor and provides real-time feedback.

Milestone Math - An iOS app that automatically adapts to a student’s knowledge level and uses self-paced learning to help students bolster their math skills.

Outwhiz - Offers self-paced exercises focusing on math and English for grades K-8. Outwhiz also offers analytics tools to track progress.

PBS Learning Media - Videos, interactive activities, lessons and more aligned to state standards and covering a wide range of subjects.

Splash Math - A K-5 personalized learning math curriculum with interactive games and rewards.

UMU - A site and mobile app (iOS/Android) that can be used to create self-paced lessons in any subject.

VocApp - A free mobile app that employs digital flashcards to help students learn at their own pace and differentiate instruction.

Vocab Victor - Students can boost their vocabulary skills at their own pace with this free mobile app, which assesses and adapts to their vocabulary level in real-time.

A version of this article was cross posted at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

Blended learning is a teaching approach that combines both traditional instruction and digital technologies to create lessons. Face-to-face teaching is augmented with online lessons and content.  

These sites provide support, lessons and other resources for educators using a blended learning approach.

Blended Play - Uses gamification to support blended learning, and allows educators to create the questions used in the multiple games available.

Buncee - An easy-to-use platform encourages creativity and sharing by supporting digital storytelling, project-based learning, interactive presentation and more.

Edmodo - A free social learning environment where educators can share class materials, collaborate with students, and keep parents informed. 

EDpuzzle - Allows educators to flip a classroom or lesson by editing a video and adding questions. Ideal for self-paced learning.

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Eduflow - A new learning management system (LMS) that allows educators to create courses and lessons, track student progress, and integrate group discussions.

FlipSnack Edu - Build your own online classroom in which you can add new lessons or upload existing ones, and where students can create and share projects.

GoClass - Uses a web interface and mobile app to create digital lessons, blend learning, and generate detailed reports.

iCivics - A free platform for teaching civics through multiple resources and through various approaches such as game-based learning, project-based learning, and web quests.

Kahoot - An engaging and popular game-based site that provides opportunities for students to take control of their learning and educators to track student development.

Khan Academy - A vast, curated resource for online learning where users learn at their own pace through interactive exercises and videos.

MySimpleShow - A very popular site for creating beautiful looking explainer videos/slideshows, as well as to "flip" or "blend" learning.

Otus - Educators can build device-friendly lessons, manage and track student performance, take attendance and notes, grade, communicate and more.

Parlay - Take classroom engagement to the next level through virtual hand raises, data-driven class discussions, best practices and more.

Umu - Provides a variety of tools for professional development, including quizzes, polls, infographics, live broadcasts, and more.

Other resources:

Blended Learning Tool Kit 

Blended Learning Infographics 

A version of this article was crossposted at cyber-kap.blogspot.com 

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

Timelines are popular for helping students and researchers to understand the order or chronology of events and trends. 

Top 20 Sites/Apps for Creating Timelines (in alphabetical order)

Adobe Spark - One of the most popular sites available for making timelines, featuring an easy-to-use wizard.

Aeon - An in-depth timeline builder, ideal for project management and creative writers.

Buncee - An all-in-one digital canvas on which students can make timelines using animations, audio and video. The ideas lab offers inspiration for projects, from lesson plans to journals.

Canva - Offers an abundance of templates to help fashion eye-catching timelines.

Flippity - A simple-to-use tool that employs a Google Spreadsheets template to create interactive timelines.

myHistro - A good site/iOS app for making interactive timelines with a special section for educational uses. Also offers the ability to embed Google Maps.

OurTimeLines - Stocked with templates for building text-based and personalized timelines.

Preceden - Useful for designing layered interactive timelines and project roadmaps. Timelines can be public or private, and also can be embedded into a site or blog.

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RWT Timeline - RWT is a free iPad app for creating stunning timelines. The app also accommodates multiple users, ideal for those schools that share devices.

Storyboard That - A digital storytelling platform with an education portal that offers a wide range of graphic organizers, such as t-charts, grids, and detailed timelines. 

Sutori - An innovative site for timelines that also supports collaborative projects. In addition, Sutori can be used for any curriculum and even to flip a classroom or lesson.

Tiki-Toki - Create great 3D timelines with images and videos. A paid account allows for collaboration among multiple users and the ability to embed timelines on other sites.

Timeline JS - An open source tool for designing timelines that include videos, maps, links, and audio. Timelines can also be integrated with Google Sheets.

Timelines.tv - A United Kingdom-based education resource for viewing timelines in five different historical categories. 

Timetoast - Create an interactive timeline that can be embedded into a site or blog. Timelines can be viewed in either standard mode or text only.

Timeline 3D - An innovative app for building three-dimensional multimedia timelines. Timeline 3D also can be exported into PowerPoint or Keynote for more options.

Timeline Maker - An easy-to-use iPad app for building timelines by stacking tiles or events.

Timeline Maker (Soft Schools) - A student-friendly site that allows users to create a timeline through text or a template.

Venngage - Make custom visual timelines or infographics from a free library of templates.

Visme - A flexible tool with a drag-n-drop interface that allows users to design custom timelines. 

cross-posted on cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

Graphic Organizers, including mind maps, Venn diagrams, infographics,and other tools, allow teachers and students to organize and present facts and ideas visually in order to facilitate teaching and learning. The web tools and apps below have made it easy to create beautiful and productive graphic organizers.

*This list is in alphabetical order

1. bubble.us - A popular web-based tool that allows users to to create mind maps, save them as images, share, collaborate and present.
2. iBrainstorm - A free iOS app for  iPad and iPhone that lets users organize ideas with digital sticky notes, and offers quick and easy multi device sharing. 
3. Checkvist - A great site for planning projects and organizing tasks and to-do lists.
4. Conceptboard - Design and create a digital interactive whiteboard to increase collaboration sharing and productivity.
5. Mind42 - Mind42 offers simple, free collaborative mind-mapping software that runs in your browser. Can search publicly shared templates by tag or popularity.
6. MindMeister - Stylish mind mapping site offering the ability  customize maps and embed into a site or blog. 
7. Mindomo - One of my favorite brainstorming sites that also lets a user flip their classroom, collaborate, comment, and much more.
8. MURAL - Use digital sticky notes to create and organize lists, flowcharts, diagrams, frameworks, methods and drawings. Integrated with Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Calendar and other top apps. 
9. Popplet - Suitable for web and iPad, Popplet helps students to think and learn visually by brainstorming and mind mapping.
   
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10. StormBoard - Provides online brainstorming and collaboration in real-time, with certified data security. Integrated with popular apps such as Google Sheets, Slack, Microsoft Teams  and others
11. Storyboard That - An excellent site with an education portal that teachers use to create timelines, storyboards, graphic organizers (t-charts, grids, etc.), and more. Lesson plans are included. 
12. Super Teacher Worksheets - An amazing site offering a wealth of educational resources, printable graphic organizers, and worksheets for all subjects.
13. Venngage - Users can create stunning infographics, mind maps, timelines, and more. Browse thousands of infographics, brochures and more in their gallery.
14. Webspiration Classroom - From the creators of Inspiration a very popular web based program for creating visual brainstorms that can then be turned into an outline with one mouse click. 
15. WiseMapping - A free collaborative, web based open-source tool, great for creating visual mind maps and brainstorms.  

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

Recently I presented a webinar for Simple K12, 10+ QR Code Activities to Inspire Curiosity and Active Learning. Below are the slides with example activities and resources. You can scan the QR codes in the presentation to take part in a poll, listen to my toddler’s audio greeting, contribute to an online sticky board, and to contribute to an online collaborative story. There are so many more activities and ideas I share in the slides to help you ignite curiosity and get your students moving and learning!

 Create QR Audio Messages 

Scan this QR code to listen to my toddler’s greeting recorded with Vocaroo. Simply record then click QR code. Learners scan the QR code then click to listen to the recording. 

Tips and Resources

You can quickly and easily scan QR codes with an iPhone camera. Just hold up the camera to the QR code like you are taking a picture and a notification will pop up with the information attached to that QR code. 

• Scan QR codes with the free apps, Quickmark and i-Nigma. These apps are available for Android and iOS devices.
• Create your own QR codes with these free websites and apps:
• Quickmark (Android/iOS/Website)- Scan QR codes with this free app. Create a basic QR code easily even on your mobile device that leads to a link, a message or any text, your contact details, or your location.
• i-Nigma (Android/iOS/Website)- Scan QR codes with this free app. Create a basic QR code easily that leads to a link, encoded message, your contact details, or an SMS.
• Qrcode-monkey is a website to easily create colorful and interesting QR codes with your own logo or image. You can even create a cool design. Attach the QR code to Twitter, Facebook, a location, websites, wifi passwords, email, bitcoin and more!
• Qrstuff is a website to easily create colorful QR codes for over 20 data types, such as email, location, a link, Instagram, Dropbox, and more! Subscribers get analytics for their QR codes. You can make it dynamic in case you want to update the QR code later.
• Visualead is a website to create colorful and interesting QR codes. Attach the QR code to Twitter, Facebook, a Tweet, Skype, a phone number, and more!
• Goqr.me is a website to easily create QR codes and attach to any Google App, such as Slides, Spreadsheets, Forms, and more! Tony Vincent has a wonderful visual to help you! 

 Challenge: Engage learners with one of these QR code ideas. 

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

On Tuesday I was honored to deliver the afternoon keynote for the #KYGoDigital Summer Tour Conference, The Keys to Fostering a Culture of Innovation! Students Who S.A.I.L. Thomas Edison designed the lightbulb 10,000 times, which meant he had this incredible drive to keep trying over 9,000 times after not getting it quite right. Innovation is a long, difficult journey with several failures before the right solution is designed. Some of our students shut down after failing once. Our hardest job is to help students believe in themselves time and time again so they outlast the journey and come up with the solutions to transform their communities and change the world! My keynote focused on the importance of teachers and schools offering curricula that motivates students to design, build, and create solutions to problems that impact them. Below find the recording to my keynote along with key tweets highlighting some of the important parts. Find the slides and resources here. Find the recordings to other incredible #KYGoDigital presentations here. 

My Keynote

Curated Slides and Quotes

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

BoomWriter Media recently announced they will once again be providing the writing platform for The Writing Bee.  This event is made available for free to classrooms, schools, and school districts around the world to participate.  What's new for this year's event is the addition of a middle school Writing Bee that will take place concurrently with the Elementary Grade Writing Bee.  Qualifying Rounds for both events will begin this February and continue through May with the Writing Bee Finals scheduled to take place in June.

This year's Writing Bee features Nick Bruel, author of the Bad Kitty series, for the Elementary Grades as well as civil rights icon and former Black Panther Jamal Joseph inspiring students with their creation of spoken word-orientated content in the Middle School Writing Bee.  Following on the momentum generated by previous years' celebrity guest author Jeff Cohen from the Goonies and Jeff Kinney from The Diary of a Wimpy series, this year's authors promise to deliver the biggest and most  interactive Writing Bee to date!

The Writing Bee represents a unique way for teachers to engage all of their students in reading and writing both within and beyond the school day.  School districts, schools, or even individual classrooms can conduct their own local "Qualifying" Writing Bee using the prompts provided by the respective guest authors.  Elementary grade students will use BoomWriter to complete subsequent chapters of a story created by Nick Bruel.  This story will then be published and include the names of all participating students.  Middle School Writing Bee participants will view video prompts provided by Jamal Joseph on BoomWriter offering instruction, inspiration and the themes around which the students will be creating their original spoken word-orientated content.

As with past years' Writing Bees, teachers have the option of providing personalized feedback to students once they've submitted their work in order for them to conduct revisions before the submissions go into the voting portion of the event.  During voting, students review the anonymous submissions of their peers in small batches and cast votes for their favorite/s.  Students who win their class, school, or district's qualifying rounds, as well as each event's top vote-getters, then qualify for The Writing Bee Finals.  This knock-out style competition takes place in June with participants from around the world submitting their work and competing to become the Elementary and Middle School Writing Bee Champions and receive a $2,000 college savings scholarship!

There's a great buzz around this event (pardon the pun), but it really serves as a great way to get kids excited about writing.  Keep in mind the last year's Writing Bee did reach capacity, so if you want your students to have the chance to participate you should go to the Writing Bee site as soon as possible and register your class, school, or district. 

cross posted at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

Micah Shippee, PhD – Social Studies Teacher

Ray Finney – Technology Teacher

Kate Walsh – School Librarian

The game design project described here was an interdisciplinary lesson between our eighth-grade social studies, technology, and library classes. With insight and support from Jon Spike, professor of Game Design and Learning at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

Project Introduction

World War 1 started in 1914 and began an era of warfare unlike any other in history. As it was fought during a time of great change, the new technologies and amount of casualties created were staggering in comparison to wars fought even just a few years prior. These weapons not only changed the fighting they also changed the preparation needed by opposing sides. After all, most nations sent off soldiers to fight on horseback and with slow loading rifles. By War’s end the following innovations had been introduced: tanks, planes, machine guns, flamethrowers, grenades, gas weapons, as well as updates to submarines. During this project, students will work with a design team to research and develop a game that conceptualizes the impact of these technologies on World War 1.

We started our project with a brief discussion about gaming using two World War One games. Students played these content-specific games and we discussed historical accuracy and playability.

Trench Warfare Game: Experience the danger of a First World War battle. Can you win the day, or will you be responsible for thousands of deaths? Select your tactics and weaponry for four unique missions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/trenchwarfare.shtml

Trench Mission: Colonel Watts has given an order to go over the top, but the soldiers have been given the wrong map. You must find Colonel Watts, collect the right map and then deliver it to Captain Brown before he and his men start the attack. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g3/game/default.htm

Connecting with an Expert in Game Design

“A game is a series of interesting choices.” – Sid Meier

Before diving into our game development we hosted a Class Video Chat (1.4.19) with Jonathan Spike (@Mr_JSpike), professor of Game Design and Learning at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Jon is a Google Certified Innovator specializing in building games for education: www.gamestormedu.com. Jon was generous enough to meet with all five social studies classes throughout the day.

Jon spoke with students about the importance of choices and prototyping in the game design process. Students were encouraged to make their game unique with a relevant challenge for their character(s). Jon also spoke about the importance of empathy in gameplay developing the concept of making choices for a character in a specific game context. The hardest part of game design, according to Jon, is connecting the goal of the game with the actual gameplay experience.

WW1 Game Project Details

Project Criteria

Changes in Combat Technology:  Incorporate 2 items/topics from each of the 6 categories in Changes in Combat Technology list.

Game Maps: Build a map based on World War 1 battlefields

Game Builder Guide: Choose one game builder from the Game Builder Guide.

Grades:

Game design is about teamwork, students served as a member of a team and each of student needed to play to their strengths for the creation of the best game possible. Students received a homework grade for individual research completion and an individual homework grade for job completion (below).

Research: Each student was responsible for researching two items from the categories below. Students were directed to include the researched items in their final game. As a team they made sure that no two were researching the same items, this will allow the most widespread research to be conducted. Each student will turn in a Google Slide show with 2 slides, one slide for each topic researched. Each slide had:

• 2 sources cited (MLA)
• A paragraph describing what was researched and its impact on WW1
• A picture of the item researched

Jobs: Here are the game design jobs students needed to choose from*

• Musician
  Develop a Game Soundtrack for a video showing the game intro and gameplay. Students used GarageBand skills learned in Technology Class.
• Storyteller
  Create an Intro Video Script including text and images to be displayed in a 30-second intro. The Storyteller wrote a document that included an introduction to the game and the rules.
• Artists
  Design Game Graphics for the game includes images, map/game board, and a team logo.
• Cinematographer
  Capture/Record images and videos to be used in the iMovie. Also, create a Google Drive Folder for the whole group to share resources for video production.
• Video Editor
  Produce a Game Movie using iMovie, that includes a 30-45 second introduction to the game (trailer) and 30-45 seconds of gameplay. This grade will be assigned by Mr. Finney and apply to Technology class and Social Studies class. Here was Mr. Finney’s Sample Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R53IUNlbK8&feature=youtu.be

Changes in Combat Technology

GUNS                                  PLANES & AERIAL TECH    SUBMARINES/WATER TECH
Machine Guns                   Biplanes                                U-Boats/Submarines
New Rifles                          Dogfighting                           Depth Charges
New Bullets (Tracer)         Interrupter Gear and           Convoys
Pistols                                 Mounted Guns                      Aircraft Carriers
Artillery                               Zeppelins                               Torpedoes            
                                            Reconnaissance Drones       Hydrophones            
                                            Air Traffic Control            
                                                     
                                                
                                            

TRENCH WARFARE               POISONOUS GAS                    TANKS
Trench Construction             Chlorine Gas                              Little Willie
“No Man’s Land”                     Mustard Gas                             British Tanks – Mark
Flamethrowers                       Phosgene                                   French Tanks – Renault
Hand Grenades                      Gas Masks                                 German Tanks                
Trench Foot Disease              Tear Gas                                     Anti-Tank Weapons  

Game Building References

Game Maps

The game students design should be based on key battles from World War 1. Students must identify the battles right in the game. Further, game maps should demonstrate damage already done to European lands, for example, students were asked to think about bombs being dropped and explosions on a flat landscape and how that would change the earth to literally look different, the map that of gameplay should illustrate this.

Game Builder Guides

Designing Board & Card Games
www.gamestormedu.com

Game Platforms
Student Design Teams were directed to select one game platform to develop. The list below provided potential platforms for students to choose from.

Draw Your Game
Use this to create a Side Scroller, a type of video game where a side-view camera angle is used for action viewing.
http://www.draw-your-game.com/

Scratch
https://scratch.mit.edu/ideas
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted

Slides-App If-Then Adventure Stories
Use this to create a Choose Your Own Adventure story. An example of this game type for WW1 is https://www.warmuseum.ca/overthetop/
https://applieddigitalskills.withgoogle.com/c/middle-and-high-school/en/if-then-adventure-stories/overview.html
https://micahshippee.com/2018/10/12/how-to-stop-google-slides-from-auto-advancing-when-you-click-on-them/

Metaverse
Use this to create a game in Augmented Reality  
https://gometa.io/

Cospaces
Use this to create a game in Virtual Reality
https://cospaces.io/edu/

Board Games
Board Game resources for more also use this…
https://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-Own-Board-Game/

Card Games
Card Game resources for more also use this…
https://blog.shuffledink.com/5-steps-to-creating-your-own-killer-card-game/ 

Student Games

Click here to view student game objectives and snapshots. 

Student Game Videos

Insights and Reflections to inform the next time 

Nearly 200 students were provided with the opportunity to play the games over several days. Students who played the games were asked to provide reviews of the overall game quality, historical quality, and gameplay experience. 

After the reviews were completed, students were lead in a discussion around how to review feedback. For example, some games received over 20 comments and reviews while others only 3. The students receiving 20 comments may not have had all positive reviews, but we discussed how that many reviews meant their game design and appearance were attractive enough for people to try the game out.

Selected Student comments about the project experience

How did you decide which people you wanted in your group? Did things work out the way you wanted? 

• For the most part yes, I had my friends in the group and we worked well together, and communicated good. We even talked outside of school about different ideas we all had. But because we were friends sometimes we got off task, but it didn’t take long for us to get back on track to what we were doing.
• I decided the people who would be in my group by what which person is good at like we had one person good at editing and one good at drawing, and etc. At the end it worked out well even though we had disagreements through out the project week.
• I worked with my friends but that wasn’t a good idea, we got nothing done. Things did not work out how I wanted.

What game platforms did your group discuss? How did you decide which one to go with? (game platform means boardgame, cardgame, video game, etc…)

• We discussed board game and video game, we decided to go with video game because it seemed like a unique idea to do and seemed like it would be more entertaining to people
• We decided to go with a breakout Edu because they are fun and easy to set up. Not only are they fast to set up they can also be interesting to play. We had to decide what it was going to be and it was that you had to get germanys battle plans.
• We decided to go with a game board because we thought it would be easier to make cause we based it off monopoly.
• My group only discussed board games, because we all had ideas for board games. Instead of picking one idea we merged all of our ideas.

How did prototyping help you design your game? (prototyping is when you had other groups try out your game)

• This helped us because we needed an outline and a sense of direction in order to make the final product.
• It helped us with our game by getting feedback from other people and then we could make our game better.
• By prototyping we were able to see the flaws in the game and change them so they were better.
• Protoyping helped us design the game by getting back their feedback and fixing the areas that needed improvement.
• Prototyping helped are game because they told us what they did not understand in are rules so then we had to fix them for they can understand better and enjoy playing.
• Because it showed us what we needed to improve on

How did you use Jon Spike’s Game Storm EDU website? (https://sites.google.com/view/gamestormedu)

• It helped by showing the process that we could use to make our game.
• We looked through the game types and we chose from there. It was a clear understanding of each game.
• I used this website to see what important things were needed to include in my game.
• We used Jon Spike’s game storm EDU by looking at what kind of board games we could make and the different types of games you could make so we could figure out what we wanted to do.
• We used it to get ideas for the cards, design of the board and objective of the game.

What did you learn from the most difficult part of the project?

• I learned that some ideas just cannot be accomplished and the final product will not turn out perfectly.
• The directions and setting it up so other people who have never played it before could play it easily.
• I learned that you have to have patience when working in a group. Sometimes it may be chaotic and they may be unprofessional, but to make things work, patience is key.
• You have to make sure your rules make perfect sense to other people so they play the game correctly.
• I learned that coming up with a story and brainstorming is a difficult task. I learned to bounce ideas off of other people even if you think they are bad.
• I learned from the most difficult part of the project that we can’t rely on people to get the job done on their own, we have to check in with them to make sure their job is done.

Project Insights

Putting the cart before the horse… many students have trouble approaching the project with an open mind regarding platform. They decided very early whether or not they want a board game or a video game. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, but it would be good for students to think about what would tell the story best rather than how to tell the story in a particular medium.

Remixing a Game: Team Icebreaker (1)

 Goals
• understanding how changing game rules change the system of a game
• introduction to the iterative process
• icebreaker game design exercise

Before the exercise
Through class discussion, make a general list of the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe. For example:
1. play takes places on a 3×3 grid
2. two players alternate turns to place an X or an O in an empty square
3. three of the same symbols in a row wins
4. if no one can play, the game ends in a draw 

Then discuss why Tic-Tac-Toe always ends in a draw for most players. Have the class brainstorm what they might modify in order to change the game: the grid size and shape, the number of players, the winning conditions, the things you can do on a turn, etc.

Modify!

Pairs of students try to redesign the game in order to increase the space of possibility of the game – to make it more interesting to play than the “solved problem” of classic Tic-Tac-Toe.

As they design, have them change as little as possible – one, two, or three rules at the most. They should follow the iterative process of making small changes, playing their modified version, analyzing how they affected the game, and then redesigning again.

Finally, groups can share their modifications with the class, and what did and didn’t work. If there are too many groups for everyone to share, then pairs of groups can play each others’ games and discuss.

At this point, I’ve seen my students create hundreds of variations of Tic-Tac-Toe. My favorite was an exceptionally elegant variation where nothing was changed – except the winning condition. If you got 3-in-a-row, you lost. Playing this version of Tic-Tac-Toe means trying to force your opponent to make what we normally consider a “winning move.” As a minimal rule-change that turns the “solved” game of Tic-Tac-Toe into a brain-twisting puzzle, I loved that modification.

Jon Spike recommends doing this same style activity but by remixing chess. Even if people do not know how to play chess, there could be some really imaginative remixes.

Writing Directions

A great deal of the feedback for students was about how the directions they provided were unclear.

Jon Spike says “Start with the objective. How do I win? It doesn’t matter what I can do on my turn or the abilities I have if I have no idea what I’m trying to do… Have them read board/card game manuals and discuss what they notice.”

I highly recommend running students through some directions writing exercises like:
How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

1. Have students write out Text only directions for making a sandwich.
2. Compare and contrast the steps other people listed
3. ASK: What are we assuming about the sandwich maker? Perhaps that they have made one before? This is not always a safe assumption.
4. Next: Have students draw Images only directions for the same process.
5. Again they should compare with others and discuss assumptions

We hope these two activities will help our students write clearer directions to maximize user engagement.  

Resources Cited:
1. “Gamasutra: Eric Zimmerman’s Blog – How I Teach Game Design ….” https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricZimmerman/20131019/202710/How_I_Teach_Game_Design_Lesson_1_The_Game_Design_Process.php. Accessed 19 Dec. 2018.

cross posted at micahshippee.com

Micah Shippee, PhD is an out-of-the-box-doer, a social studies teacher, and a technology trainer. He works to bridge the gap between research and practice in the educational sector. Micah explores ways to improve motivation in the classroom and seeks to leverage emergent technology to achieve educational goals. As an innovative "ideas" person, Micah likes to think, and act, outside the box. Micah is motivated and energetic, taking a creative approach towards achieving goals. As an Educational Consultant, and Keynote Speaker, he focuses on the adoption of emergent technology through the development of an innovative learning culture. Micah believe that innovativeness is the pedagogy of the future.

Throughout the last few years I've compiled quite a few lists of my favorite sites/apps for a variety of subjects.  Mobile learning and BYOD (bring your own device) is making it easier for students to learn, especially in the subject of math.

*This list is in alphabetical order. 

1. 4 Dice: Fraction Games - A great iOS app for learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. This game meets Common Core Standards and has blue tooth capabilities to allow for two players across multiple devices.
2. 5 Dice: Order of Operations Game - A neat iOS app for practicing "order of operations" where the answer is giving and students need to figure out the equation. Some nice features include the email feature for teachers to track students ability as well as a nice interactive whiteboard to help figure out the problem.
3. ABCYA - A wonderful site/apps for educational games.
4. AplusMath - A nice site for math games, worksheets and flashcards.
5. BuzzMath Middle School - A fantastic iPad app for middle school students wanting to learn and practice their math skills.  When a student gets an answer wrong BuzzMath shows them the correct answer and how to solve it.  Also, supports "differentiated instruction" as well as a website with a teacher portal for managing and tracking students.
6. ClassPad - A new free online math tool that creates a digital scratch board to solve any math problem.
7. Cookie - A great site with lots of educational games for elementary schools.
8. DimensionU - One of my favorite sites/program for K-12 for developing math skills in all areas. This site uses cutting edge technology to reinforce math skills in 3D games in safe competitive environments.
9. DragonBox - An excellent multi-platform site for teaching students algebra in a fun and unique way by starting out using pictures instead of numbers.
10. Education Galaxy - An innovative online platform for grades K-6 that helps students achieve success in any number of core subjects including math.
11. Fiete Math Climber - A nice iOS game to help students with basic math skills, such as addition, subtraction, and more.
12. Funbrain - One of the most popular educational gaming sites on the web.
13. Grid Lines: Ordered Pair Game - Grid Lines is a very unique and challenging game which has students plot order pairs/points on a four quadrant grid. This is great for upper El Ed and MS students and has blue tooth capability for multiplayer.
14. iKnowIt - A rather new site that is quickly become of of my favorites for interactive math problems grades K-5.
15. IXL - One of the most popular sites for math for grades K-8 as well as for learning algebra and geometry.  Not only does this site have an educational portal for student tracking and reporting but tons of lessons to choose from as well.
16. Kidz Page - A nice site with lots of fun educational math games.
17. King of Math - An interesting iOS game for middle school math where students answer questions and puzzles to level up their character.
18. King of Math Defense - A wonderful math strategy game for basic math skills grades K-8, that has students defending a castle against monsters.
19. Learning Games for Kids - A great sites with lots of games for education.
20. Lure of the Labyrinth - A site designed for pre-algebra students to go on an amazing adventure to rescue their lost pet and avoid monsters. Not only does this app have a wide variety of lessons for MS students it also is aligned to state standards.
21. Fuel the Brain - A nice site with lot of different educational math games to choose from.
22. Marble Math - A great iOS app that has students playing the old fashioned marble tilt puzzle game solving basic math problems (addition, subtraction, etc.) plus decimals and fractions.  Users can either tilt their iOS device to move the marble or use their finger to guide their marble to the desired spot.  Not only is this game highly addictive it gets rather challenging in the upper levels.
23. Math A Tube - A great resource for math students/teachers for all areas of math. A person can not only find videos and worksheets, but explanations of all sorts of math concepts (ie, geometry, decimals, fractions, etc.).
24. Math and Sorcery - One of my favorite iOS game for learning basic Math skills playing an old school 8bit style RPG.
25. Math Castle - A super-fun iOS game for basic Math skills that has players defend a castle from a dragon by answering equations.
26. Math Champ - A very innovative iOS app that turns a student's iPad into a "buzzer" to answer questions before their classmate. This does require a teacher to "host" the game as well as setup a class list. Math Chimp supplies all the Common Core Standard questions from a wide variety of math problems.
27. Math Game Time - A terrific site for grades K-7 with lots of educational games, worksheets, and videos.
28. Math is Fun - A cool site for all things math grades K-12 that has more then just equations to solve.
29. Math Leaper - A fun iOS game w/ detailed reporting that has students jumping higher and higher while solving basic math skills (grades PreK-8).
30. Math Minute Madness - A wonderful iOS app that focuses on basic math skills and has students trying to solve as many questions in a minute to earn stars so they can add animals to their virtual zoo.
31. Math Playground - A great site for finding math resources such as: word problems, games, worksheets, flashcards, and more.
32. Math Rescue - A fun iOS game that has students learning concepts of rounding and estimations while putting fires.
33. Math Run: Panda Chase - A nice iOS game for learning basic math skills grades K-5 following the popular "running" mobile platform style.
34. MathEdge - An excellent iOS app for young learners working on their addition and subtraction skills through the use of flashcards.
35. Milestone Math - An interesting iOS app that uses self paced learning to help students with their math skills.
36. Mystery Math Town - This is one of my favorite unique iOS apps for building math skills. Ideally this adventure is for kids 6-12 and focuses on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Students enter a town and try unlock levels and characters by not only solving equations but finding the variables to solve the given equation as well. This game is highly addictive and has very high replay value.
37. Numbers League - A fantastic iPad app for students 5 on up that uses basic math skills to defeat a legion of evil super heroes. This interactive comic style game focuses on Common Core Standards and can be used by students of all ages as it gets harder and harder.
38. Operation Math - This is a very fun iPad app that focuses on the basic skills of math while trying to stop an evil villain from stealing numbers by solving equations and locking his escape route. OM is a great game for kids 5-12 with high replay value that takes them to lots of geographical locations.
39. Ordered Fractions - A fun iOS game that uses dice to roll random numbers and then have students put them in boxes to create fractions. Students then have to compare these fractions to put into ascending order.
40. Pipo Games - A nice site/program with lots of educational games for any curriculum, math included. A paid account unlocks all features and games.
41. Play Kid Games - A very nice site with lots of fun and engaging math games.
42. Polyup - A new free site that uses Game Based Learning to help students w/ Math in grades 3rd-12th.
43. Prodigy - A excellent innovative math game for grades K-8 w/ real-time reporting.
44. PurposeGames - A nice little site for educational games on a wide variety of subjects where teachers can create their own games too.
45. RoomRecess -   A wonderful site for elementary students to learn basic math concept through a wide variety of educational games. 
46. Sakura Quick Math - An ideal iOS app for grades 1- 5 that focuses on all basic math skills. Not only does Sakura track students progress it allows for users to write the answer directly on the iOS screen.
47. Skip Math: Skip Counting Games - A fun iOS app similar to Doodle Jump where students jump from platform to platform to count by numbers (i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.).  Another neat feature is the ability to take a picture of yourself and put it on the game character.
48. Sushi Monster - A nice iOS app for practicing addition and multiplication facts.
49. YodelOh Math Mountain - A super-fun iOS app that focuses on the basic skills of math such as: addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. This game is a hoot and reminds me a lot of the Price is Right game where the mountain climber tries to reach the top of the mountain before time runs out.
50. Zap Zap Math - An excellent site for math grades K-6, with an educational portal for student tracking and generating detailed reports.

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

 “The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of.”  

 Valentine’s Day is around the corner! This holiday is a great time for students to be creative and share how much they appreciate and care for others. You can also get students to think and problem solve with the fabulous STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) activities and resources below. All are free! You can also download the slides from my webinar, Valentine’s Day Activities Students of All Ages Will Love! (Download as a pdf). 

Valentine’s Day Activities Students Will Love from Shelly Sanchez Terrell

• Get students learning about their hearts! The Science Museum of Minnesota has an awesome website with interactive ways for students to learn about their hearts. Students see the heart labeled, can move a stethoscope around to find the heartbeat, can see videos and other interactives. 
• Complete Heart is an incredible free app for your iPad. Students can see a 3D version of a heart, trace an artery to its origin, travel throughout the layers of a heart, and use augmented reality to view the heart to scale on a table.
• Find free heart lesson plans and printables by the Texas Heart Institute for K to 6th here.
  Students can create their own pixel art using Google Spreadsheets and send to friends and family. Find an easy free template to use with students on Alice Keeler’s blog. I’ve tweaked the lesson for my elementary students who are learning about spreadsheets. Students 1st create their own pixel art using the template then must write down the cell addresses they used and the numbers they clicked for a peer to follow to reveal the pixel art.
• Here is an awesome free printable for elementary students to learn about math and color in the numbers to reveal a mystery picture (a heart owl). This heart owl is great since it appeals to both genders. My elementary students, 1st to 4th, really enjoyed this activity!
• My students love Tynker! Tynker helps your students learn about coding, algorithms, problem solving, and game design for free with no registration required. Check out these 3 Valentine’s Day activities:
       Students can use Tynker to code a personalized Valentine. No registration is
       required, but this is an intermediate level coding activity.
       Check out this awesome coding activity and game where students help a monster
       reach another to send a Valentine’s Day message.
       Students can also begin learning about block coding by helping a monster collect
       candy. This is a great starter coding activity and teachers don’t need to know about
       coding to do it. Students click on Candy Quest to get started.
• If you can get access to a 3D printer then students can quickly and easily learn how to design 3D charms, rings, ring pops, boxes for messages, and more using Tinkercad. Students register free and take the short tutorials and lessons to begin. Each lesson takes 5 minutes or less and teaches design, math, scaling, and more! Afterwards, students tweak a 3D template to quickly design a 3D printed object. You could complete a lesson in an hour or less if you have access to computers, but remember the objects may take an hour or more to print depending on how big they are and the design. Do this early and print on another day while working on something else!
• Students can send free digital greetings to their loved ones, peers, another class, nursing homes, cancer wards, orphanages, the fire department, or the military with Buncee, Chatterpix Kids app, Ink Cards, Canva, Magisto, Pic-Collage, 123Greetings, or Red Stamp. First, allow them to create their messages or poems on paper and have their peers edit for grammar errors. Students can add drawings or photos to many of these web tools and apps.
• Get your students to send their digital greetings to students worldwide by joining the Virtual Valentines global project. Your students can just send their Valentines or also Skype with the other class.
• Candy and sweets are especially popular during Valentine’s Day, which makes it a perfect time to learn math and science by making candy. Find several recipes that I’ve bookmarked here.
• I’ve created this free writing activity for students in which they work in pairs to create a recipe for a love potion. After the pairs write down the ingredients, they can learn math and science with these recipes for making a fizzy potion they can drink.
• Add fun science learning to Valentine’s Day greetings by getting students to write their messages in invisible ink.
• Students can create love poems with the free digital Love Magnetic Poetry Kit.
• Students can learn about concrete poetry here (shape poetry) and create their own heart shaped poem using the Neoformix Word Hearts generator.
• Use Tagxedo to create Valentine’s Day inspired word clouds with adjectives to describe their loved ones. Tagxedo lets you create word clouds in the shape of hearts or with the profile of the person.
• Very young learners will enjoy learning words, spelling, and phonics by creating digital greetings on Starfall to send to fun characters. My young students love the Math Journey Valentine’s game which is free and requires no registration. 

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

In October, Tech & Learning Magazine shared the first article about DIY (Do-It-Yourself) professional learning opportunities that are available for educators interested in earning certificates or becoming a product ambassador while exploring digital tools and resources. In this second article, you'll find three DIY learning opportunities for best practice in edtech and coding: 

EDTECH TOOLS & RESOURCES

Epic E-Books Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://www.getepic.com/educators

Epic has over 25,000 e-books, learning videos, and quizzes for K-5 students. As an educator, these amazing e-books are free to use! Teachers have the ability to create collections and assign those collections to students to read. Teachers also have the ability to import their class rosters into Epic from Google Classroom. Students and classes can earn badges along the way. Becoming an Epic Certified Educator requires a series of easy-to-complete activities such as reading your first book, logging-in students, assigning reading and creating quizzes. Teachers receive a digital badge to showcase their accomplishment. 

CREATING & CODING

Vidcode Creative Coding Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://about.vidcode.com/professional-development-course

Vidcode is a web-based platform that teaches JavaScript coding through media creation for students in grades 3-12. Become a Certified Educator by completing 4 hours of videos and activities related to creative coding, and sharing their experience at a conference or in-school workshop. Teachers get a digital badge, a certificate that they can use to apply for PD credit at their school, and access to a community of certified Vidcode educators. 

PEDAGOGY & BEST PRACTICE

Nearpod Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://nearpod.com/certified-educator 

Nearpod is an interactive lesson delivery  platform for active student engagement. To become a Nearpod Certified Educator, complete a 3-stop process that includes attending a training (live webinar, self-paced-webinar, or in-person), create a lesson, and launch it to at least 15 students. The benefits include access to a closed Facebook group for collaboration. In addition, educators receive upgraded access and support; and the opportunity to become a Nearpod Leader. 

 Andrea Tejedor is the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, at Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District in New York. She is an educator, researcher and consultant who presents regionally and nationally on leadership in the educational technology arena.

Sheri McNair is the Library Media Specialist at the James I. O'Neill High School and the Head of Library Services for her district. In addition to teaching information literacy and technology integration at the high school, she is a Google Certified Educator Level 2 and serves on the district’s technology team and the inquiry facilitation team.

You’re right. Most New Year’s resolutions are made closer to the actual New Year. But it’s [almost] still January . . . so I’m good, right?

And it’s never too late to make a few 2019 social studies resolutions. Best place to start? Asking questions about our current practice, especially during this middle of the year period: What’s working? What’s not? What do my students need? What resource needs to be phased out? How can I get better?

The middle of the school year is a perfect time to think about these sorts of questions. In that spirit, here are five New Year’s resolutions every social studies teacher should make:

1. Focus more on problems and process

I talked about this just a few days ago and I’ve been harping on this for years. But we all need to hear it – especially in January and February when it might seem easier to just lecture and give kids some questions to answer.

Kids need problems to solve. They need evidence to solve them. They need to develop the skills needed to mess with that evidence. They need to work with others to create solutions. And they need the opportunity to share their solutions. Content will always be important. But we need to be intentional about finding a good balance of content and historical thinking skills.

And after a lengthy conversation this morning with Steve Wyckoff around the idea of using badges as a way to focus on social studies competencies, I’m reminded again of the importance of teaching process skills.

Need some examples? 

• Stanford History Education Group lessons
• Read.Inquire.Write
• DocsTeach lessons
• National Archives: Teaching with Documents
• CaseMaker and DB Quest (New Library of Congress inquiry model tools)
• Library of Congress Teacher Page 

2. Apply for summer professional learning opportunities

We should never stop learning, never stop honing our craft. The cool thing is that there are a ton of groups out there who are dying to provide free professional learning. Some of my faves? Gilder Lehrman. Ford’s Theater. Goethe Transatlantic Outreach.

Need some more?

• Professional Learning Opportunities  (Massive spreadsheet compiled by Stefanie Wagner from the Iowa Department of Education.)
• Goethe Transatlantic Outreach
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer programs
• Gilder Lehrman summer programs
• Ford’s Theater summer programs
• Foundation for Teaching Economics summer program
• National Geographic professional learning resources 

3. More intentional civic engagement

Ok. Most of us have probably dropped the ball on this one. Seriously. Twenty to twenty five percent of Americans can’t name the three branches of government. We have the lowest voter turnout of any modern democracy while at the same time voting rights are being curtailed across the country. And we seem to believe just about anything some 18 year-old Russian kid posts on our social media feed.

It’s not completely our fault. But . . . it’s a little our fault. We need to be much more intentional about finding ways to support both the content and process of Civics – whether we teach Civics or not.

Try these tools:

• Stanford History Education Group civic literacy lessons
• iCivics
• Generation Citizen
• EagleEye Citizen
• Kid Citizen
• Engaging Congress
• Voting Rights, Women’s Equality Day, & Constitution Day
• Civic Action Project 

4. Use social media to grow your PLN

We can all use a hand now and again. A question answered. A resource shared. A strategy explained. And we all have a Personal Learning Network. But social media has the power to expand that network exponentially. (That’s a math term meaning “a lot” or “a bunch.”)

So explore Twitter or Pinterest or even something like GoodReads. Because the more people that we can connect with, the smarter we get.

Need a kickstart? 

• Twitter chats are your best friend. So why are you ignoring them?
• Twitter Chat Basics 

5. Try something scary

As the K-12 education system morphs into one more focused on process, problem solving, college and career readiness, and truly preparing students for their future, we need to change as well. And that can be scary. It might mean changing lessons or adapting resources. It could mean integrating more technology into your instruction. And I guarantee that it means shifting control of learning over to your students.

This semester? Try something new. Something different. Something that you’re not quite sure how it’s going to turn out. One teacher said:

Need a few ideas?

• Google Expeditions
• Use more fiction
• Boy Scout Badges
• Greet kids at the door 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

If you are a member, moderator, or admin of any Facebook group, you may have heard a buzz that they are kicking out members unless they prove they are active. 

Is this true?

Let's look at the buzz.  Some admins are complaining that they're losing thousands of members. Some are saying they weren't informed in advance and there is no way to appeal. To prevent this, some admins are encouraging members to show some activity to stay in the group.  

Here's an example:

 However, this isn't what is actually happening.  

What is happening is that Facebook wants authentic membership rather than falsely inflated groups.  This happens when admins and moderators invite hundreds or thousands of people who never asked to be invited. These people are in the group, even if they never accept the invitation. What happens when unscrupulous admins do this is thatgroups look popular, when they're really not.

What Facebook has done is moved those people who were not active to the "invited" list. It looks like this: 

 If an admin thinks that person may actually want to be in your group, they can send a reminder to accept the invitation.  You can read more details on group invites at Facebook's help center.

There is also something called "unavailable." These are people who have deactivated their account or are no longer members of the group.

It looks like this: 

 You can read more details about unavailable group members at the Facebook help center.

Here is the notification Facebook provided for group admins:  

 The Verdict

This is a move by Facebook to create more authentic groups. This means groups that represent those who are active and care about the topic of the group. The result for members is that they are aware of the people who choose to be in and interact in the group. The result for admins is that they can see who really wants to be in the group as well as those who've deactivated their accounts or removed themselves from the group. 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from January 2019, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our January 2019 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda and all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the last month. This includes 23 new Google updates and 27 Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to: 

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the January 2019 meeting:

 Note: If you would like to see each of the agenda items with links directly to those spots in the video, open the video using the YouTube link below and then click “Show More” below the video.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dYuc7W0Pv8

You can view the full Google Document agenda with links to all the Google Apps updatesfrom the last month, as well as all the resources covered in the meeting in the Google Doc linked below.   

View the agenda - Google Document link

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• OETC - Feb 12-14, 2019 - oetc.ohio.gov
• OETC TILO Mixer - Feb 13, 5:30-7:30pm - Park Street Tavern - Google Doc flyer
• NEOtech Conference - March 6-7, 2019 - Cleveland Convention Center - http://www.neotechconference.org/
• EdCampCLE - Apr 13, 2019 - North Ridgeville, OH - Google Doc flyer
• ITIP Ohio Summit Featuring Google for Education - May 13-14, 2019 - Sandusky - www.itipohio.org
• APS3T- June 11-12, 2019 - Firestone CLC, Akron, Ohio
• Tech and Trek Conference - June 19-21, 2019 - Hiram College - https://www.ideastream.org/tech-and-trek-conference - Call for proposals
• SPARCC Tech Conference - August 9, 2019 - http://conference.apps.sparcc.org

What's New in G Suite:  January 2019 

• Assign unique colors to chart elements in Google Sheets - Resource link
• Option to embed Google Drawings in Docs - Resource link
• 11th annual Doodle for Google contest opens for K-12 students - Resource link
• Google Classroom updates include drag-and-drop topics and items, and new look and themes - Resource link
• Google Chrome Labs releases online Etch-A-Sketch tool - Resource link
• Moving Directory settings in the Admin console - Resource link
• Applications open for Google for Education Certified Innovator Program - Resource link
• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites getting a Material Design update to their look - Resource link
• New Scratch 3.0 launches based on Google Blockly - Resource link
• Upcoming Hangouts service consolidation for all G Suite customers - Resource link
• Two new Hangouts Meet tools added to the Admin console - Resource link
• New Gmail compose formatting and download options - Resource link
• Google’s Jigsaw publishes new quiz to test your ability to identify phishing emails - Resource link
• Jamboard web improvements - Resource link
• Updated roadmap for classic and new Google Sites - Resource link
• Google Arts and Culture mobile app gets updated with AR tools and more - Resource link
• Details on G+ shutdown for consumer accounts - Resource link
• Blogger changes related to G+ shutdown - Resource link 

Show and Tell

• Google Tools and Activities for Art Education - Resource link
• Google Tools and Activities for Music Education - Resource link
• Googley Activities and Tools for Primary Students - Resource link
• Get Healthy with Google Fit and My Maps - Resource link
• 20 Awesome Add-ons for Google Docs - Resource link
• Write Better with Writer's Highlighter Add-on for Docs - Resource link
• Dark Mode for Google apps - Resource link
• Google Slides "Guess Who?" game template - Resource link
• Google Slides "Guess What?" game template - Resource link
• Google Classroom Guide (doc and video) - Resource link
• Using Google Sheets to manage differentiation activities for students - Resource link
• Picture-in-Picture mode for YouTube Videos - Resource link
• Branching Forms for immediate assessment feedback - Resource link
• "Decorate your Gingerbread House" Google Slides activity - Resource link
• "Disguise Yourself to Break into Santa's Workshop" Google Slides activity - Resource link
• Creating & Locking Google Slides Backgrounds - Resource Link
• Make a Copy with Version History - Resource link
• Creating Student Portfolios with Google Sites - Resource link
• Google Earth Studio - web tool for creating geographic animations and video - Resource link
• Google's "Year in Search 2018" - Resource link
• Digital Wellbeing mini-course from Google to help us find better balance with technology in our lives - Resource link (and a collection of digital wellbeing resources from Google and more - Google Docs link)
• Font Formatting in Google Comments - Resource link
• Creating digital self-portraits with Google Drawings - Resource link, Resource link
• Free video course on Google Apps Scripts to learn how to code in Google Sheets - Resource link
• US States Google Drawing template - Resource link
• Build a Member of Congress activity for Google Slides - Resource link
• Create your own "Mobile App" with Google Slides - Resource link 

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit: 

Google User Group schedule - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/monthly-meetings

If you have something to share and would like to join the Hangout for an upcoming meeting, send me an email to let me know at: ericcurts@gmail.com 

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

 We all know that I spent a significant amount of my formative years digging through old National Geographic maps. You know the ones I’m talking about. They got slipped into the middle of the magazine and unfolded into poster size after you discovered them. I still have an old shoebox full of them. Cause they’re just so cool.

So it shouldn’t surprise any of you that an online article about maps, especially one from National Geographic, is going to catch my attention. But before we head over to take a look, a quick geography mental map quiz.

Ready?

First step, create a mental map of the world. (If you’ve got a few extra minutes and some paper and pencil, feel free to draw it out.)

Got it?

Based on your mental (or actual) map of the world, answer a few simple questions:

• How much of South America is east of Miami, Florida?
• How much of Africa is north of the equator?
• Which city is further north – Paris, France or Montreal, Canada?
• Venice, Italy is located at the same latitude of what major American city?
• Which is bigger? The lower 48 United States or Brazil?

The questions are taken from Why Your Mental Map of the World is (Probably) Wrong and they’re probably going to mess with your head. Cause most of our mental maps are wrong. And there are some pretty good reasons for that. But it’s an interesting article because it reinforces the need for the intentional integration of geography into our social studies instruction.

(Need the answers? Scroll to the bottom.)

One of the things the article talks about is the emotional connection that maps make in our brains. And that’s a good thing. The sad thing is that much of what we call geography instruction fails to make these emotional connections. The result? Our kids don’t remember basic geographic info or make the connections between place, people, and events.

So we need geography activities that engage kids at the emotional level. Explore and adapt these:

Start with maps that describe things that we usually don’t think about or in ways that catch our attention. Start with these. 36 Maps That Explain the World, 40 More Maps That Explain the World, 37 Maps That Highlight Immigration in the US, and 33 Maps That Explain the United States Better Than Any Textbook.

Introduce or review basic maps skills by asking kids to map their memories. Get an idea of what that can look like at this Tumblr. Then ask students to create a map that targets something specific to them on a map. Last week in groups, our PLC created maps of Kansas that showed favorite restaurants, towns they’ve coached in, and tourist locations that they’ve visited.

Work with your ELA teachers and have students create Lit Trip maps of fiction, non-fiction, and short stories that they’re reading. Ask kids to create maps of their favorite video games or movies. Activating prior knowledge and connecting that to a visual format such as a map is perfect for building map skills.

Try using infographics to create maps that look different than what kids expect. Ask them to create their own using tools such as Canva or Infogram. 

Use maps to make sense of political cartoons.

Explore the tools at The True Size – an online tool that can help kids visualize the actual size of countries.

Use Bouncy Maps to connect locations with data. Maps become bigger or smaller to show differences in the data. Want kids to get a visual sense of where refugees are coming from? Be sure to play with all the buttons to create a wide variety of maps. 

We need to be asking better questions and giving kids problems to solve. These tools can give you the resources to do that.

Still need the answers to our quiz? Here ya go:

• How much of South America is east of Miami, Florida?
  Pretty much all of it.
• How much of Africa is north of the equator?
  2/3
• Which city is further north – Paris, France or Montreal, Canada?
  Paris
• Venice, Italy is located at the same latitude of what major American city?
  Portland, Oregon
• Which is bigger? The lower 48 United States or Brazil?
  Brazil

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

Welcome to Part One of this series based on Computation Thinking. This first post will provide the “what” and “why”along with some steps to promote this important practice. The second post will provide a goldmine of resources to get you started with your students.  

As you might know, I believe all transformation must be based in the standards. These standards must include both content and process standards (4C’s). Too often, I see wonderful activities that engages students… but also see important standards that could have been made authentic to students through deliberate meta-cognition engaging the mind and the heart.

In this post, I would like to review a thinking processes that can be applied across the curriculum providing a process for authentic understanding of standards.  The cognitive process I am referring to is Computational Thinking (CT). This type of thinking is important not just in high stake testing, but also success in that world after school. Perhaps you have come across the idea of computational thinking in education.  The best way to describe computational thinking is to look at the way a computer thinks… or at least runs a program. This is actually the most important concept a student learns through coding and developing computer programs. We must keep in mind that it is not the coding that is important… but the thinking process. After all… one can use a computer, but not actually use computational thinking skills.

So, what is this skill set found in Computational Thinking? They are best described as the important steps taken to solve a problem and come up with a solution. As you read these steps think about your own curriculum. Where do you want your students to use computational thinking skills?

• Decomposition – This involves the ability for students to look at a problem. and through careful observation students break down a problem or system into smaller, more manageable parts.
• Pattern recognition – Now that the problem is broken down students must look for similarities among and within the problem. What patterns can be seen and what does this mean?
• Abstraction – At this stage students begin focusing on the valuable information only, ignoring irrelevant detail. It really is time to look at the specific trees while blurring the forest. While determining what is important… how does this relate to a possible solution?
• Algorithms – At this point students should be able to develop a step-by-step solution to the problem. They maybe able to also identify rules and procedures to solve the problem

As you can see these abilities are an important part of critical thinking. They allow us to use our human ability to go beyond the computer program. We have long used subroutines of thinking in class such as determining reasons for a civilization’s decline, the twists in a story, the answer to a math story problem, or the use of a dichotomous key. In past practice, we as the teacher often provide the steps necessary to find the answer. What would happen if our students created the algorithm itself, at least part of the time? How might we assess them in this style of thinking that provides deeper understanding. What if our hour of code turned into solving a real problem? What if we brought a Makers Culture into the classroom and facilitated and assessed computational thinking while emphasizing authentic and real understanding of the standards?

“We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts” – John Dewey

I believe John Dewey said it best with the above quote. We must provide our students opportunities to critically think. We must assess them, and they must assess themselves.  We must go beyond engaging activities for the sake of engagement. We must engage the mind!  As Dewy reminds us, providing students the opportunity to think about and do something with content is what real learning is all about. Best of all, a new and real understanding will be achieved that no standardized test can stand in the way of.

Ten Ideas to Expand Computational Thinking in your Classroom

1. Take time to embrace the verbs in the standards… doing is learning.
2. Facilitate and assess the 4C’s… assessment should be by teacher, peers, self, and mentors.
3. Encourage meta-cognition and the “Habits of the Mind”. We must have moments that we think about thinking.
4. Promote and assess collaboration as it expands and enriches the understanding of all involved. Realize that this is a foundation for critical thinking.
5. Embrace, demand, and facilitate rigorous and continuous inquiry.
6. Think Webb’s DOK and upper Blooms and make sure it is a part of a high percentage of lessons.
7. Remind students…. algorithms are steps that anyone can follow, not as many can write one. They must become the creators of algorithms.
8. Support students making and using computational thinking to expand standards while connecting to real world and other disciplines.
9. Support standards by aligning and assessing through student making and thinking.
10. Provide students important content connected with thinking,,,  plus doing and making

In the next post, I will provide you with a Gold Mine of resources to further investigate Computational Thinking. Please take the time to visit and learn.  

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

As the traditional definition of literacy expands and deepens, today’s students are learning new ways to communicate and collaborate. They need to be able to read, write, code, analyze data, and evaluate sources. They also need to know how to be good digital citizens and invest in positive relationships. Educators are learning new skills, too, as they teach and model these interconnected areas of literacy: reading, media literacy, digital literacy, and social-emotional literacy.

READING: CHANGING THE CONVERSATION

The foundation for literacy, in all its forms, is reading. And building a strong reading program begins with teachers who are engaged learners themselves. Thanks to edtech, “The conversation around learning has really changed,” says Dr. Lundy Brantley, superintendent of Neshoba County School District. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become a “way of life” in this rural district in east-central Mississippi with 68 percent free and reduced lunch. The culture, he says, has changed to one of high expectations. For the first time in its history, in September 2018 Neshoba Central  Elementary was rated an “A” school based on Mississippi’s A–F accountability system.

Brantley credits Neshoba’s elementary principal, Tiffany Plott, with initiating some of these conversations that are transforming the district. “Teachers are meeting in their PLCs, some every day, and talking about individual student learning and data points,” Plott says. “They’re building trust and recognizing that shared success depends on sharing ideas.” And Neshoba’s 3,3000 students in grades K – 12 are the beneficiaries.

When Plott arrived from a more affluent district five years ago, she ordered Chromebooks and carts for the school, which is now 2:1 in K–1 and 1:1 in grades 2–5. Brantley, who’s in his second year at Neshoba, says that between a fantastic tech director and increased bandwidth, “everyone now has access to everything we have.” This investment in bringing opportunities for digital literacy to students in rural communities has paid off with huge dividends, he says. Because students are now able to create, analyze, and utilize edtech, they’ve grown, for example, over 40 proficiency points in science.

A Robust Tool and Enthusiastic Learners

With passionate teachers, edtech tools, and i-Ready, Neshoba students have also made huge strides in reading. The district chose i-Ready because of its diagnostic pretests, personalized learning paths, interventions, and embedded help. “I love the teacher toolbox, instructional games and strategies, and reports with data that pinpoint exactly where we need to go to get a child to grade level, says Plott. “Other programs give lots of practice, but not instruction.” Teachers appreciate these tools and knowing exactly how to remediate and enrich.

But literacy rates at Neshoba have improved because students have also caught the enthusiasm of this culture of transformation. “The kids love it,” Plott says, and incentives like four-foot trophies that the two classrooms who are the i-Ready champs in math and reading win for the week help spur competition, collaboration, and learning. “We take their picture, announce it on Facebook, and the kids even put the trophy on their table in the lunchroom,” says Brantley. “The conversation has changed for kids and parents too.”

If there’s one picture of literacy that’s worth a thousand words, it might be a photo of two eight-year-olds working together at an interactive panel, critiquing each other’s work. Brantley’s voice brims with pride as he describes this moment of shared learning and collaboration.

MEDIA LITERACY: A SUBSET OF DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

In its broadest sense, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Students need to learn to look at URLs, for example, and determine the safety and reliability of sources. With the prevalence of 1:1 programs, media literacy is no longer the sole province of librarians teaching standalone lessons about staying safe online. The conversations need to be broader and deeper, and Nancy Battaglia, Director of Technology for Skokie (IL) School District 68, sees media literacy as a subset of the overarching theme of digital citizenship.

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, definitions can be slippery. The term “digital citizenship” has come into use over the past decade, and at Skokie, a pre-K–8 district of 1,900 students, Battaglia and others are working on a simple working definition for the district. Common Sense Education’s infographic below is a helpful starting point with younger students, as are the writings of Mike Ribble, who combines the elements of digital citizenship into three areas: educate, protect, and respect. Increasingly, balancing screen time is also a component of being a good digital citizen.

In a very real sense, however, as technology becomes more intricately intertwined with everything we do, Battaglia says there’s a case to be made for calling digital citizenship just “citizenship.” Media literate students are those who can think critically and comport themselves with wisdom, care, and concern for others—onscreen and off.

Simplifying and Embedding

Rather than trying to create an all-encompassing scope and sequence to teach digital citizenship, Battaglia suggests simplifying and embedding the concepts into everyday conversations—in the classroom with students, but also among educators. “Often,” she says, “teachers are already teaching digital citizenship—talking with students about not using their last names online, for example—without realizing that’s what they’re doing.” Starting the conversations with young students is important, she says, so good digital citizenship becomes a natural part of their positive, discerning approach to all interactions online.

Celebrating Digital Citizenship Week each October is a great way to start the year and to make sure that new teachers are all on board and part of the process. Online resources abound, including those from ISTE, Common Sense Media, BrainPop, and Google. Battaglia also recommends using instructional and technology coaches and librarians as resources in addition to capitalizing on real-life examples of situations and questions as learning experiences for all.

Educating parents as part of this cultural shift is also key, she says. Parents need resources to help them make decisions about how their children use district technology at home. Parents also have a key role to play modeling good online behavior.

Practicing Discernment

Some parents have been surprised, Battaglia says, by their district policy not to block YouTube. “We explain that, in the real world, YouTube is not going to be blocked. Students use YouTube to learn to make things and learn new skills—there are so many good parts, and so instead of blocking it we need to teach students to use sites like that safely.” See Battaglia’s presentation on digital citizenship at the 2018 T&L Leadership Summit here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/RHdITYp4WJ1wQ/

FOSTERING DIGITAL LITERACY THROUGH DISCOVERY, DISRUPTION, AND INNOVATION

Philadelphia, the fifth-largest city in the US, is a city of neighborhoods, strong community, and connectedness. And although the Declaration of Independence, which asserts equality for all, was adopted here, like most cities today Philadelphia faces challenges to ensure that there are equal digital opportunities and access for everyone.

Andrew Stutzman is one of many passionate and innovative educators seeking to advance digital literacy in creative ways and in multiple contexts throughout the city. Stutzman’s leadership roles have morphed over the years as he works to ensure equality in the dynamic tech landscape—from providing free computer lab access through the KEYSPOT network to various initiatives connecting educators, employers, and students. The common thread of his involvement with projects like Drexel University’s Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center, the Technology Learning Collaborative (TLC), Digital On-Ramps, and LRNG Philly, is digital literacy training for all. These projects demonstrate how digital literacy can transform communities. They’re also resource-rich examples for educators seeking to promote digital literacy in their own districts and community contexts.

The ExCITe Center

The ExCITe Center accomplishes its mission, “to inspire transdisciplinary research and discovery connecting technology and communities,” through novel projects as diverse as an entrepreneurial game studio, 3D knitting machines, and Summer STEAM programs where students can participate in unique arts-science learning activities exploring, for example, the science behind music, the engineering behind sneaker design, and the intersections between visual art and geometry and biology and dance.

ExCITe’s STEAM workshops for teachers, with keynote speakers and presentations as well as hands-on workshops, promote computer science by providing busy teachers with professional development opportunities, resources, and skills to implement proven initiatives in their classrooms.

The ExCITe Center also conducted a year-long, in-depth exploration of makerspaces across the country. Its report, Making Culture, highlights how important student interest, real-world relevance, and community collaboration are to learning. The study also revealed the very real gaps in inclusion in STEM education and formulated recommendations for addressing them. Another goal of the ExCITe Center, Stutzman says, is to offer more professional development for teachers on creating, maintaining, and integrating makerspaces.

LRNG Philly

LRNG, which recently merged with Southern New Hampshire University, is another organization working in Philadelphia and other cities across the country to address workforce needs and increase low-cost or free access to learning pathways for all youth. Their urban ecosystem approach focuses on low-income populations and seeks to identify and meet educational needs in each city.

Beyond knowing how to use a computer to perform basic office skills, Stutzman says, one of the key components of 21st-century digital literacy is knowing how to work with data. Financial literacy is another important area as, for example, students fill out college applications. Community partnerships through LRNG enable youth to connect learning experiences to career and higher education opportunities through mentoring and earning digital badges, internships, and scholarships.

Equality for All Digital Natives

Digital inclusion, Stutzman says, always needs to be part of the conversation about digital literacy. While broadband penetration is about 83 percent across the country, it’s still only 71 percent in Philadelphia and as low as 37 percent in the poorest areas. That’s why programs like CS4PHILLY (part of the national CS for All consortium), which sponsors major events to promote and expose high-school students to technology, are so important.

At a recent holiday event for the homeless, the TLC provided technology including iPads and laptops for the kids to use. “Every device was in use the whole time,” Stutzman says. “Everyone knew what they wanted to do and how to use the device to do it. There were no questions.” Students who don’t have the kind of tech access that their peers do still took to it like fish to water. “That was really encouraging,” Stutzman says. Imagine what they could do if they had such equal opportunities every day.

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LITERACY: PRACTICING PATIENCE, KINDNESS, AND OPEN COMMUNICATION

Unless our students who know how to read, write, and solve math problems also master the skills necessary to manage their emotions, set goals, make decisions, show empathy, and invest in positive relationships, they will not be fully “literate” members of the workforce and society. Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL, is a rapidly growing field in education and Randi Peterson, an SEL curriculum developer in Bellevue (WA) School District, explains that it needs to begin with adults.

Helping to equip every adult who has an impact on children—teachers, but also other school personnel, coaches, after-school program facilitators, and parents—with their own SEL skills is critical for teaching and modeling SEL. But even positive change can be difficult. Sometimes, for example, it’s a challenge to get parents on board. They might say, “We didn’t talk about feelings in my family.” And because it’s relatively new as a curriculum area, teachers who may have grown up learning SEL implicitly at home or in their community need to be supported as they build a mindful capacity to teach SEL. “It’s more than a content area—and it’s a learning curve,” Peterson says. Patience, kindness, and open communication are key.

Another key to integrating SEL into the curriculum successfully, Peterson says, is triangulating multiple data points. Bellevue uses various tools to gather data. Aperture’s DESSA helps to build the kind of picture of a student’s needs that enables educators to target instruction, and the Panorama Student Survey captures students’ voices in areas like student engagement, pedagogical effectiveness, school climate, and safety.

A Framework for Talking about Feelings

Bellevue began their journey focusing on SEL as an academic area in 2011. The district adopted the five core competencies set out by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. This framework, Peterson says, gives adults and students a common language for talking about feelings and mindful decisions as well as what she calls “SEL opportunities” in unstructured and sometimes stressful environments like the playground, cafeteria, or school bus. Washington is now one of CASEL’s collaborating states and has also instituted state-wide SEL standards and benchmarks (competencies).

At the elementary level, Bellevue is using evidence-based curricula, including Second Step (grades K–2) and The RULER Approach (grades 3–5). Peterson acknowledges that SEL is more easily and naturally integrated into elementary classrooms where teachers spend the day with a group of students. While there are a few resources available for middle and high schools, it can be a challenge to prioritize SEL intentionally. “We’re explicitly incorporating SEL for our secondary students by utilizing affective statements and questions, talking circles, and community building assemblies, as well as integrating prosocial lessons into content area subjects.” With neighbors like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, Bellevue hears all the time how crucial these relational skills are in the workplace.

“It’s also critical to develop leaders in SEL,” Peterson says, and Washington’s micro-credential pilot program in SEL is equipping teachers to be leaders among their colleagues. The websites for CASEL (casel.org) and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley (ggsc.berkeley.edu) offer a wealth of resources as well as conference opportunities for educators.

“It’s complex work that requires a lot of coaching and continuous cycles of improvement,” Peterson says. “But I truly believe it’s the work that we need to be doing.”

On Thursday, January 10th, the Fair Haven Knights esports team made history when we took on the William Annin Vikings in the first round of the Jersey Shore Esports Cup. This was historic because it was the first ever esports match between two middle schools in New Jersey. Maybe even the country.

After 18 months of planning and meeting with stakeholders to get approval, I launched our middle school esports team this September. We have been practicing hard since then to get ready for the Rocket League esports season which usually starts up in early spring. I say usually because it has been hard for us to find other middle schools to play. Esports just started to find its way into high schools. Middle school is probably still a few years away. Right now, you can count on one hand how many middle schools have esports teams, so we are taking on all comers. This means we have been adding colleges and high schools to our esports schedule, but I wanted to get some middle schools to play against, too. That is why I reached out to my friend and educational spirit animal, Steve Isaacs, to see if his middle school video game club would be interested in putting a Rocket League team together to play us.

As always, Steve was all in. After some discussion, we decided to make this first ever battle of middle schools something special, so we decided to create the Jersey Shore Esports Cup (JSEC). The Jersey Shore Esports Cup is a totally made up event that we came up with as an excuse for us to play against each other multiple times over the next few months. Hopefully, as the #esportsedu movement grows, we’ll be able to add more middle school teams to the JSEC. But for now, it is the FH Knights vs. the Vikings in an epic, two-team battle for the prestigious, inaugural Jersey Shore Esports Cup!

This match was a first for Steve and I. We’ve never hosted an esports event before. But last Thursday at 4pm, we invited parents, students, and stakeholders at both our schools to come watch the match. We played in our library at Knollwood middle school and Steve played in his classroom in Basking Ridge. What brought everyone together, even though we were competing from our own schools, was the stream. Streaming is the act of showing live video game play over the internet. Early in my esports journey, I had met Topher Jaims. Jaims is a college professor from Bellevue university who also plays and casts Rocket League at a competitive level. Casting, which is what commentating a game is known as in the esports world, really made the event something special. Topher, along with his partner, streamed our game and commentated on it live from Nebraska for all of our viewers, both online and in house, to see (you can see the behind the scenes production of the stream here). Let me repeat that for those in the back: two middle schools in New Jersey played each other from their own schools as the game was broadcasted live by two commentators top notch commentators from Nebraska. What a time to be alive.

The event couldn’t have gone better. While we had a few technical difficulties, players, coaches, and commentators worked through them (using our cell phones to communicate) to create a memorable, historic experience for all involved. In total we had 2 coaches, 24 players, 60 in house fans supporting our players, and another 100 or so watching the stream live on Twitch.

After the event, my players went out for pizza and I sent our film to the Rutgers University esports team who have partnered with us to help us improve our gameplay and grow esports at the middle school level. They broke down the following areas we need to work on:

FHK
=============
– Need to learn spacing
=> They kept running into each other, one idea is to have 2 players go for the ball at the same time with a fake.

– They need to learn to setup to each other better
=> Goes hand in hand with spacing. 1 player on the ball, 1 player on the opposite side of the net that gets ready to spike the ball in over the center once it is rebounded, and 1 player on the backside ready to defend or push opponents out of the way to aid in the scoring.

– They need to learn handbraking.
=> The time it takes to drive in a circle compared to the time it takes to handbrake spin is tremendous. It is better to learn to handbrake or jump-180 to fix driving directions. (X on controllers I believe)

– Aerial game.
=> Not too bad for their current ability, but in order to really make sure that they can dominate, they should learn some aerial abilities. Very much so for defense. I highly recommend doing the given practice in the game Hard version. That will focus on aerial and hard to defend goal shots. Doing that perfectly will aid in their ability to predict and get needed aerial practice.

Kyle Frick & Scott Zackman – Rutgers Esports

I include this feedback to help you understand that we aren’t playing for fun. Just like all the other “real” sports our esports practices include a game plan to help us get better. We have drills, we scrimmage, and I give the same type of feedback to my players as I did when I coached wrestling, football, and track at the varsity level. That’s because there are a lot of opportunities that come with being a competent esports player and I want to make sure my students can take advantage of all of them. And because we will need to get better since our next game is against Rutgers followed by the University of Northern Colorado.

Below I have included the stream of our match with William Annin for your viewing pleasure. Skip around if you don’t have the full 90 minutes to watch. It really picks up about halfway in. We are playing the Vikings again in early February. Stay tuned to twitch.tv/fhkesports for all your FH Knights esports news.

Until Next Time,
GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more atTeched Up Teacher.

We’ve all been there. You just finished putting together a great instructional lesson or unit. Kids are gonna love it. They’re working together. Doing research. Creating stuff, not just consuming it. The historical thinking will be off the charts.

Then you realize . . . you haven’t created the rubric yet.

You know that clear expectations and feedback are critically important to the learning process. You know that rubrics can help you in assessing what students know and are able to do. So you sit back down and eventually decide to use four scoring columns instead of five. Six rows of criteria instead of three. Clear descriptors. Nine point font all crammed into your matrix so that it fits on one page. Definitely tons of feedback gonna happen from this beauty.

But it’s worth it, right?

Mmm . . . using a great rubric can speed up the grading and assessment process but they can also create other issues besides the amount of time it takes to create them. A student shows creativity way beyond what the rubric asks for in a way that you hadn’t anticipated and your columns and rows aren’t able to reward that. Or a kid spells everything correctly but the grammar and punctuation is terrible. Maybe she nails the document analysis but fails to use evidence in her claims and your rubric has those two things together.

And is there any way – other than individual conferences – to really know whether students actually go deeper into your scored rubric than to look at the final grade circled in the bottom left hand corner?

Yes, analytic rubrics are useful. I’m not saying rubrics shouldn’t be part of your assessment toolkit. They can help you develop and create assignments that are aligned to your end in mind. They can provide clear expectations for students and a way to share feedback. But they can also be difficult to design correctlyand may seem so overwhelming to students that the expected feedback we want never really sinks in.

And, sure, holistic versions are much quicker to create and use. So that’s nice. But they fail to provide specific and targeted feedback. You get a kid who wants to know why they got a two instead of a three or worse, he won’t ask at all. Missing the whole point of providing feedback in the first place.

So . . . why not look at a third way to the rubric game? And use some tech to make it even better?

This third way, called a single-point rubric, is a lot like an analytic rubric listing the different required component parts of an assignment. Like the KSDE version below, you would still have Focus, Evidence, Argument, and Conventions as rows. But instead of four columns of four, three, two, and one across the top, you have just three columns.

And here’s the kicker, only the middle column actually contains descriptors. Essentially, the single-point rubric simply describes what successful work looks like using the criteria for proficiency. One of the remaining columns is used to highlight things in the student work that are amazing and go beyond proficient. The other can be used to highlight ways to improve the work.

Let’s use the KSDE historical argument rubric as an example. Nothing wrong with the rubric, especially since someone else created it for us. But it can still have some of the baggage that all analytic rubrics carry with them.

So we take the second column, the Three column, and isolate it.

Using these descriptors, we can create our single-point rubric: 

This is basically copy and paste to show a quick sample. So you might want to tweak the Focus section or clarify more what grade appropriate strategies looks like in the Argument section. The idea is to make your life easier and student work better. So a single-point rubric doesn’t try to anticipate ways that a kid might exceed our expectations. It doesn’t try to describe ways that a kid failed. It just says . . . here ya go, this is what I want – leaving lots of room for student creativity and expression. It also allows you to be specific about ways student work can improve. 

 Quick review – why use a single-point rubric? 

• Simple to create
• Clear, specific, higher quality, and individualized feedback
• Focus is on feedback and improvement, not just a grade. (Great if you’re moving to standards-based assessments or away from traditional grading.)
• Allows for flexibility in teacher feedback without losing clear expectations
• Supports student performance and creativity beyond proficient
• Encourages students to actually read and internalize our feedback

Need some research-based evidence? Feel free to head over to this 2010 research project by Jarene Fluckiger highlighting rationale, impact, usage, and examples. And Jennifer Gonzalez has two nice articles here and here.

But. I can hear the buts.

 I like the idea but doesn’t using a single-point rubric mean I have to write more feedback? Instead of just circling cells on a rubric?  

Perhaps. But . . .  it’s more specific and more impactful than circling cells on a rubric. And with the Google Interwebs, there’s a quick and relatively painless way to make providing feedback a bit easier.

You’ll need to be using the Google Chrome browser and Google Docs for this to work – most of you are doing that already. First thing? Go to the Google Web Store and install the Chrome browser extension called Checkmark.

Once installed, Checkmark makes leaving comments on Google Docs super easy. Highlighting any text in a Google Doc opens a simple popup window that has a list of generic comments that every teacher might make on a student work. Spelling, grammar, repetitive language, passive voice, needs more evidence. Simple check the boxes with the comments you want to leave and Checkmark will insert those along the right hand side of the document.

The beauty of Checkmark is that you can create specific comment menus and add specific criteria to each menu. 

Using Google Classroom would make this even easier. Paste in your rubric into the assignment, share it with students via Classroom. When kids submit their work, you have the option to use Checkmark both on the rubric and throughout the work is you want.

No. Checkmark won’t work for every comment you’ll need, (one of the selling points of a single-point rubric is to deliver student specific feedback) you’re going to have to actually type some stuff in now and again. But Checkmark will help with the basics, giving you more time to do that.

And isn’t that the idea? So give single-point rubrics a try. Together with Checkmark, your kids are gonna walk away smarter. 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

As a science teacher, I often get the following statement when working with other educators: "Sparking student interest in the Sciences is just easier. You get to show cool demonstrations and stuff...".

Yes, this is very true. It can be easier.

BUT, I recently had an incredible conversation with a Humanities teacher at my school, and she shared some incredible great resources for leveraging data visualization a method for sparking student curiosity in the humanities. 

If you are not familiar with data visualization, check out this talk. 

By finding a visualization, downloading it, removing specific information (titles, legends, keys, etc.) and displaying it to students, questions emerge. 

For example, this visualization of drought patters over the course of the past 100 years in America can be a powerful spark to build student interest in the Dust Bowl. 

Show students the image, say: "What are you curious about?"

Questions will emerge that will vary but ultimately, because of the nature of the visualization, students will not only ask "What does the orange region represent?", they will also notice that similarities exist between the  the 1940s and parts of the 2000s. 

Questions will emerge related to differences in farming practices, the economy, polities, etc.

​Suddenly a conversation related to the core causes of the Dust Bowl emerges without even discussing the Dust Bowl directly. 

​THEN, the next day (or for homework) show Ken Burn's documentary on the Dust Bowl. Delay the instruction. Delay the mentor! It's how the Hero's Journey operates. 

Below are some excellent Data Visualization Resources:  

GapMinder
What's Going On in This Graph? 
Information is Beautiful 
New York Times Data Visualizations 

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

A lot of times it is common to focus on "The Big 4" of language arts, math, science, and social studies, when exploring technology tools for learning. However, it is important to see how technology can be integrated into all subject areas and skills.

One excellent area for using Google tools is in music education. Technology can help students create their own music, as well as explore and understand musical concepts that may be difficult to visualize otherwise.

In this post we'll look at tools from Google, or that work with Google, that can be used for teaching, learning, and creating with music. These include Chrome Music Lab, AI Duet, Groove Pizza, Flat, and many more.

See below for details, links, and descriptions for all of these tools.

Session Resources
Session Agenda - Google Docs link
Session Slideshow - Google Slides link

#1 - Chrome Music Lab

Chrome Music Lab is a collection of 13 interactive "experiments" that let users create, play, and learn with a wide range of music concepts. Experiments include Song Maker, Rhythm, Spectrogram, Chords, Sound Waves, Arpeggios, Kandinsky, Melody Maker, Voice Spinner, Harmonics, Piano Roll, Oscillators, and Strings. These activities are also cross-platform, working on laptops, tablets, and phones.

I recently did a blog post where I went into details on each of the 13 tools in Chrome Music Lab. You can get all of those details here: "Learning Music, Art, Science, Math and more with Chrome Music Lab"

#2 - Groove Pizza

Groove Pizza is a fun tool to create beats. You start with a "pizza" and then add beats to three different rings, which can then be played back. Here's how it works:

• Launch the tool at the website: https://apps.musedlab.org/groovepizza
• You can begin with premade "Specials" to see what can be created and then modify those as desired.
• Or you can start with a "Plain" pizza where you make your rhythm from scratch.
• You can add beats to three different tracks.
• You can make up to four groove pizzas at a time that will play one after the other.
• You can change instruments including "Rock", "Techno", "Afro-Latin", "Hip-Hop", and "Jazz".
• You can adjust the "Volume", "BPM" (beats per minute), the "Swing" (to slightly offset some of the beats), and the "Slices" (number of beats).
• When done you can even download your creation as a .WAV file.

Another neat feature of Groove Pizza is its math application:

• If you click on the "Angle" button, the angle measurements for each vertex will be displayed. This can be a helpful way to teach or reinforce the concept of the sum of the interior angles of a polygon.
• You can also click the "Polygon" button to shade in the shapes on your pizza. This can tie into the study of different polygons.
• Finally, fractions can be visualized using the groove pizza, as well as the option to change the number of "Slices" which can be applied to comparing fractions and equivalent fractions.

To learn more about how this tool works, check out the video below:

#3 - AI Duet

AI Duet gives you a chance to play music along with an Artificial Intelligence. Using Machine Learning, Google fed loads of music into the AI so it can respond to what you play with its own complimentary tune. To try this out:

• Go to the site at: https://experiments.withgoogle.com/ai/ai-duet/view/
• Click "Play"
• Start playing my clicking on the on screen musical keyboard.
• Or use your computer keyboard with the "A" row being the white keys of the keyboard, and the "Q" row being the black keys.
• The computer will then play a duet with you based on what you played.

To learn more about how this tool works, check out the video below from Google:

This can be a useful tool to help students dissect a song to understand better how each instrument or track contributes to the whole song.

#4 - Seeing Music

The "Seeing Music" tool allows you to visualize sounds and music. You can choose multiple sources for the music, as well as several different methods for displaying the sounds. Here's how it works:

• Go to the website at: https://creatability.withgoogle.com/seeing-music/
• Choose where you want to get your sample music/sounds from including your microphone, sample provided sounds (sax, guitar, violin. etc.), a playable on-screen piano, or an uploaded audio file of your choice.
• Choose which visualization you wish to use including Hilbert Scope, Spectogram, Waveform, Oscilloscope, and more.
• You can also turn on the option for "Grid and Notes" which will display the actual notes as the music is playing.

To learn more about how this tool works, check out the video below from Google:

#5 - Google Arts and Culture

The Google Arts and Culture site is a massive collection of photos, primary source documents, videos, VR experiences, and more, all dedicated to cataloging and exploring human history, art, music, and more. For music, one particularly useful collection is the "Performing Arts" section of the site.

• Go to the site at: https://artsandculture.google.com/project/performing-arts
• Explore the different section of "Performing Arts" including:
• Stories - Multimedia presentations on music topics
• Virtual Tours - 360 degree street-view style tours of theaters around the world and other musical locations
• Items - Over 15,000 photos and artifacts in high resolution
• Videos - 360 degree immersive videos that put you inside of musical performances
• Collections - Themed collections of material on different locations, theaters, movements, and more

#6 - YouTube

Of course no list of music resources would be complete without mentioning YouTube. This is a fantastic way to expose students to music from around the world and throughout time, as well as learn about topics in music theory. Below is just a small list of some helpful music-related YouTube channels and playlists to get started with:

TED-Ed Music Education - YouTube link
Chris Wright - Understanding Music - YouTube link
The Listener's Guide - YouTube link
Instruments of the Orchestra first grade - YouTube link
Odd Quartet - Music History, Theory, and Tech - YouTube link
Music Theory Guy - YouTube link
The Physics of Music - YouTube link

#7 - Flat Website and Add-ons

Another music composition tool is the Flat website, as well as the Flat add-on for Doc and Slides. The website at https://flat.io is the full version of the tool, which allows students to collaboratively write sheet music with a wide range of instruments. There is a free version, a paid version, and an educational version (https://flat.io/edu) which integrates with Google Classroom. I tested out the free version which lets you create 15 scores with over 100 instruments.

In addition to the full version of Flat on the web, there is also a simplified version as an add-on for Google Docs and Google Slides. Here are the basics for how that works:

• Install the Flat add-on for Docs or the Flat add-on for Slides.
• Launch the tool by clicking "Add-ons" then "Flat" then "Insert Musical Snippet".
• You can now compose your musical snippet using the notes and menu items.
• Click the play button as needed to hear what you have created.
• Click "Insert" when done to add the snippet to your Doc or Slide as an image.
• Later you can play back the music by selecting the image and re-opening the add-on.

#8 - Soundtrap

Soundtrap is a very powerful, but very easy to use, music composition and collaboration tool. Although it is not from Google, it works well with you Google account. You can log in using your Google account, and if you choose to purchase the educational version, it integrates with Google Classroom (and has lots of other benefits).

For my testing, I just tried out the free version, which still had an impressive amount of options. With the no cost personal version you get:

• 5 projects
• 900 loops
• 210 instruments and sounds

Here are the basics (way oversimplified by me) on how Soundtrap works:

• Log into the site at https://www.soundtrap.com
• Open and existing project or create a new one.
• On the editor screen you can now add and edit tracks for your composition.
• You can add a track by choosing from the large collection of pre-made loops with many different instruments.
• Or you can add a track by recording it yourself with the on-screen keyboard, again using hundreds of instrument sounds.
• You can invite collaborators to work in Soundtrap with you on your creation.
• When done you can export your music in several different formats.

#9 - Screencastify

Standing up in front of a class or group of students to sing a song or play an instrument can be a stressful situation for some students. It is very easy for their nerves to get in the way so that the student’s performance is a poor representation of what they really know. One option to help with this is to allow students to record themselves with a screencast.

Although we often think of screencasting as recording your screen, most tools will also allow you to just record your webcam. Students can record themselves singing their song or performing their music in the privacy of their own home. This can have several benefits:

• The student will be much less nervous you will get a more accurate measure of what they know or can do.
• The student will likely do the recording multiple times to get it perfect, encouraging lots of practice and repetition.
• The student will likely gain confidence, as the screencast serves as a stepping stone to presenting live eventually.

There are many excellent screen recording tools you and your students can use. One of my favorites is the Screencastify Chrome extension, which can be installed from the Chrome Web Store here.

For more details see my blog post on "7 Super Screencasting Activities for School" as well as the video clip below from a recorded webinar I did that specifically addresses using screencasting for a student to give a speech or performance:

Conclusion

Music is a powerful tool for student learning and expression. Technology can provide many ways to enrich and extend this experience. If you have other technology resources that are helpful in teaching and learning with music, please consider sharing them in the comments below.

Math STEM Resources

MathSite – You will enjoy this amazing interactive journey in math. The exhibits found at MathSite are intended for people of all ages who are interested in or are curious about mathematics. No specialized mathematical knowledge or special expertise is assumed. You will find it a place to see, hear, and do mathematics.

Emergent Math – Looking for ideas that just might spark a PBL math idea? Emergent Math is dedicated to brainstorming interesting and dynamic math problems and projects. The facilitator of the blog is employed by the New Technology Network of Schools. The posts really do allow for real mathspiration (inspirational combined with math). As stated in the blog, “interesting math problem/project can come in the form of a picture, a video, a tweet, something your child says, etc”. This blog really does attempt to use all of the preceding ideas, plus more! The posts generate ideas on how these concepts just might fit in the classroom and/or provide some driving/guiding questions. The best place to begin your exploration is at the first page of the blog and read the index! You will enjoy your immersion in Math!

Three Act Math Tasks – This is a wonderful collection of Math Tasks made to help students really understand Math by Dan Meyer and others.

Desmos – Their mission is to help every student learn math and love learning math. We accomplish that goal by building products and partnerships.
Check out a best-in-class HTML5 Desmos graphing calculator, which millions of students around the world use for free, including students who are blind or visually-impaired.  Discover hundreds of digital activities.

Exploring Space Through Math – This amazing NASA site promotes inquiry through real world applications. Students assume the role of NASA scientists, engineers and researchers who work in teams to accomplish tasks. These projects promote cooperative learning, problem-solving and the use of technology. The problems in this project follow the 5-E’s Instructional Model with a segment for each phase of instruction – Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate. The projects cover the scope of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Precalculus.

Geogebra – Get this free online math tools for graphing, geometry, 3D, and more!
Estimation 180 – A site created to build number sense one day at a time. You will find all kinds of ideas and lessons.

Annenberg Learner Math Lessons – Annenberg Learner uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. The math lessons could be a footprint to a PBL unit or scaffolding for an entire PBL. While at the site… take a look at the interactives.
Figure This – This wonderful site is the work of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in cooperation with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Widmeyer Communications, and the Learning First Alliance.  Its mission is to challenge middle school mathematics and emphasizes the importance of high-quality math education for all students. While it was created to allow for family interaction, it is also figures into the Math PBL classroom. The site allows students to have the opportunity to face some every day real life math challenges.

• Top 50 Math Sites and Apps
• Using Digital Math Tools To Increase Student Achievement

Rich Math Tasks – This site from the UK has some amazing math tasks that will be sure to engage your students and promote math understanding.

NZ Math – These rich learning Math ideas come from New Zealand. They represent both the procedural and conceptual approach.

Mathematical Moments – Authenticity is important in Math PBL. It seems that Math educators are always looking for ways they can show how math is used in the world around us. Discover a site that will help you achieve this goal of real world application. The site is cleverly titled Mathematical Moments and it is well worth the time! It contains free printable posters that are 8.5″ x 11″ PDF documents. These informational posters are available on many different topics in science, nature, technology, and human culture. As you take a closer look many of these posters note that many have a  link to some short feature podcast interviews with experts in the field. These posters and podcast could spark the idea for a PBL math unit that brings authenticity into your math teaching.

MIT Blossoms – All of the lessons in the MIT Blossoms library have been contributed by BLOSSOMS partners from around the world. There is a watch the Teacher’s Guide Video Segment included with each lesson to learn more about it. The final segment of each BLOSSOMS video lesson is a one-on-one conversation between the teacher and the “virtual teacher.” Best of all, these lessons can be part of a PBL unit. The provided link brings you to the Math (English Language) Section.

Get The Math – Get the Math is about algebra in the real world. See how professionals use math in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Then take on interactive challenges related to those careers.

Mathalicious – While this is a paid site you will find several free projects on the homepage. Perhaps you will find that the paid lessons are really well worth it!  This site does demonstrate that math is about more than just numbers and equations. Students find that math is a tool to explore the world around us. Mathalicious provides teachers with lessons that help them teach math in a way that engages their students–in a way that helps students understand how the world works. Lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards and explore real life questions.

TedEd – The makers of TED… these really are some wonderful flipped lessons with formative tools built in. These are definite lessons worth sharing! You can even make your own.

CK12 – Not only are the free flexbooks amazing  you will also find simulations, PLIX, and Adaptive Practice This is an organization raising the bar with interactive learning activities and practice that adapts to individual student performance.
How to Smile –  Discover this group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. Find new ways to teach kids about math and science.  Discover activities that meet you where you live, whether your “classroom” is an active volcano, the shark tank at the local aquarium, or your own kitchen table. SMILE is collecting the best educational materials on the web and creating learning activities, tools, and services.

Khan Academy – Help every student succeed with personalized practice. 100% free.
Find standards-aligned content and assign practice exercises, videos and articles
Track student progress and best of all join millions of teachers and students

NRICH – The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

Illuminations – Illuminations works to serve you by increasing access to quality standards-based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support for teachers.

PHET – This simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery

CanFigureIt – Created by teachers, this highly interactive tool provides an easy-to-use work space where students can practice proofs while exercising their deductive reasoning muscles.

Hub Page – This page contains some great PBL ideas in the area of math. Once you visit be prepared to stay awhile.

Less Helpful Math – Great blog filled with engaging and real world resources. The author Dan Meyer provides out of the textbook ideas that will make math authentic.

Share My Lessons – Welcome to a place where educators come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. It was created by teachers for teachers. It is a free platform giving access to high-quality teaching resources.  It provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other.

PBL Pathways – This is a website dedicated to Math and PBL. In the supplied link you are directed to the PBL Projects. Here you will discover some project ideas covering many areas of advanced math. Each is a complete project that you may wish to include. Please be sure to read their Terms of Copyright Statement when using the materials.

Curriki Algebra – This is an Open Education Resource (OER) Algebra course that consists of five units aligned to the Common Core. Each of the units culminates in a project that utilizes mastery of conceptual understanding taught in the individual lessons. These units include:Unit 1: Relationships between Quantities and Reasoning with Equations
Unit 2: Linear and Exponential Relationships
Unit 3: Descriptive Statistics
Unit 4: Expressions and Equations
Unit 5: Quadratic Functions and Modeling

Math and Sports – What an amazing website from Cambridge University! These free online mathematical resources explore math and science through sports. These resources include activities designed to develop problem-solving and mathematical reasoning skills for students aged 5 to 18. You will also find  articles aimed at older students. Also, be sure to visit  video maths challenges which is produced with input from Cambridge by BBC Two Learning Zone. Another must visit site includes activities on Maths and Football (European style). It is possible to discover articles and activities that are arranged by Key Stage. The site also allows the user to access  tabs at the top of the page, or view content by sport or topic.

Plus Magazine – That is right… it is a magazine. Another plus… it is free. Most important it is all about the world of Math. This is a wonderful resource that will bring the authentic world of math to your students. Stories and activities can be a scaffold in a PBL Unit or possibly the catalyst for an entire project. This is one that I could have spent an entire post on.

Mathematics, Learning, and Web 2.0 –  “Mathematics, Learning, and Web 2.0” is written by Colleen Young. Her posts provide thoughts and ideas in a very math practical manner. It is a wonderful blog that will allow any math teacher to dream up a new PBL, or scaffold an activity inside an existing project!. Not only that… it is just wonderful reading… so enjoy!

SAS Curriculum Pathways Math – While SAS contain free curriculum for many areas be sure to check out some great math possibilities all for free.

Real World Math – Welcome to a collection of free math activities for Google Earth designed for students and educators. Mathematics is much more than a set of problems in a textbook. In the virtual world of Google Earth, concepts and challenges can be presented in a meaningful way that portray the usefulness of the ideas

PBS Learning – You will find thousands of multimedia possibilities in the math portion of the PBS site. Get ready to search!

NCTM Real World Math – Visit this collection of previously published articles from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School and Mathematics Teacher that make strong connections between mathematics and other disciplines. The articles contain activities, experiments, investigations, or problems that are appropriate for use with middle school or high school students. Many of the articles can be adapted for use with students at different grade levels or in different kinds of courses.

Education World – Check out this article filled with  online collections of real-world math activities, math activities with a specific real-life focus.

Graphing Stories – Check out these 15 second videos and then get your students graphing!

OER Commons Math – This is a large collection of online resources that are part of the open education resource field.

Math Snacks – Smart educational animations, games, and interactive tools that help mid-school learners better understand math concepts.

WolframAlpha – This is an amazing search engine based on data and mathematics. If you think the search engine is amazing then check out their educational site. There are some amazing resources.

Gap Minder – Explore this amazing world of data. Do you want to use Gapminder tools in your classroom? Check out our resources on this page and the downloads page to get started. You are free to use them today in your classroom!

Math Lessons – this site has some great lessons by Robert Kaplinsky. Make your own PrBL with these ideas.

CT4Me – This site has some awesome resources to take a look at for teachers of math. You will find all kinds of ideas including thoughts on PBL and Math.

Math Hooks – The goal is to introduce challenging, inquiry-based activities to every middle school math classroom in order to foster student participation, enthusiasm and improvement through rigorous discussion.

YouCubed – This site from Stanford University has a main goal to is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math learning into accessible and practical forms.

Week for Inspirational Math – These WIM lessons have been used millions of times, in every state across the US, as well as many other countries in the world. Teachers and students love the activities and mindset videos. In previous years of WIM, 98% of teachers said their students were engaged when working on the lessons and 96% of the students surveyed said they now believe they should keep going even when work is hard and they make mistakes. And that is a wonderful thing!

MAISA – Check out this data base from the state of Michigan that provides resources and lesson ideas aligned to standards. You will find rich math possibilities for students.

MARS – Classroom Challenges are lessons that support teachers in formative assessment. There are 100 lessons in total, 20 at each grade from 6 to 8 and 40 for ‘Career and College Readiness’ at High School Grades 9 and above. Some lessons are focused on developing math concepts, others on solving non-routine problems.  

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

Both my kids have always had a strong sense of art, of being able to create visually appealing pieces. (The Rowdie effort to the left by the oldest is not one of his best efforts, though it does accurately convey the family pet’s personality.) We constantly had crayons, painting supplies, easels, and all sorts of other artsy things in use around the house.

I wasn’t much help. My art skills have been described as “creative” and “abstract.”

Both kids continue to share their love for the medium and to help me think about art and artists. And today, a quick conversation with a high school US history teacher meandered down a path that focused on ways to integrate art into our instruction.

So it got me thinking a bit.

We often forget how powerful the arts can be in connecting our kids with social studies content and big ideas. Art, in all of its forms, is a great way to create emotion, generate connections, and build relationships. Whether viewing landscapes, portraits, or historical events through the eyes of contemporary artists, students can get a sense of time, of place, of interpretation that would be impossible using other forms of primary sources.

One of the quickest ways to incorporate the arts is to focus on the visual – paintings, drawings, and images. But I often notice it missing from the toolkits of many social studies teachers. And I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe we’re just not aware of the resources available or the kinds of questions to ask. If we’ve never thought too much about using artwork as an instructional tools, it can be hard finding a jumping off point.

So what can it look like when we intentionally integrate visual art into our classrooms? Try some of these ideas and resources:

Norman Rockwell has always been a favorite. So maybe start with this powerful example of helping kids envision his Four Freedoms embedded in the 1st Amendment using this article I wrote earlier this year.

Then head over to all of the different Smithsonian art museums for lessons, graphic organizers, and primary source sets designed just for teachers:

• National Art Gallery 
• National Portrait Gallery
• America’s Presidents
• American Art Museum

The National Council for the Social Studies has some helpful journal articles:

• Using Art to Teach History to Young Learners
• Creating Connections: Integrating the Visual Arts with Social Studies

The Kennedy Center instituted ArtsEdge as its educational media arm, reaching out to schools, communities, individuals and families with printed materials, classroom support and Internet technologies. They also have a handy mobile app.

EDSITEment is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities and offers a treasure trove for teachers in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.

The Social Studies Arts Toolkit includes multimedia resources designed for use in K-12 social studies and arts classrooms. Be sure to browser through their nice PDF document of strategies.

And like my quick conversation earlier this morning, all of this stuff lends itself nicely to some engaging and powerful professional learning discussions with your peers. So during that next awkward silence in your department meeting, don’t be afraid to kickstart a discussion on how Leutze’s use of color and shading in his 1861 Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way is indicative of America’s moral values during western expansion. 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

In my opinion, one of the keys to academic achievement is active student learning. Research tells us that personalized, collaborative, and connected learning experiences enhance student engagement, in turn, driving student success. By integrating blended and digital learning into the classroom, educators can take learning experiences to the next level and improve student performance.  

As I prepare my Blended Learning for Active Learners session for the Local Staff Development Opportunities (LSDO) Dinner Series, I want to share some thoughts about blended learning.  My presentation will be two, 3-hour sessions, each focusing on current instructional practices and tools. Guest speakers will include representatives from @Buncee @PearDeck @GAB__on and hopefully a few more in hopes of sharing instructional tools to support active learning.

According to its most basic definition, blended learning is an instructional methodology that combines face-to-face classroom methods with digital activities. Ideally, in a blended classroom, students will be able to learn according to their unique learning styles. Students often take different approaches to interacting with the same curriculum. Some are happy to express themselves verbally, others prefer to write and still more, prefer not to be in front of the camera. When teachers use a variety of instructional tools and applications, they help every student focus on his or her strengths. These lessons and activities can be taught in a physical classroom, through online tools, or in a virtual classroom, like a webinar.

A paradigm shift has occurred in education. The best mix of instructional practices take into account the learners’ requirements, levels of understanding, competencies at stake, and the nature and location of the audience and resources available. The focus of the classroom shifts from the teacher being the presenter to the teacher being the facilitator; students collaborate and are active participants in the learning.

In schools, leaders are promoting blended learning and in the process, are inspiring educators to redefine their traditional roles. The word “facilitator” has emerged as a key component to active learning because a facilitator places an emphasis on empowering students with the skills and knowledge required to learn, making the most of the content. The paradigm shift supports a more meaningful and impactful student experience.

I believe, and have seen, that in classrooms where more students are engaged and taking an active part in their own learning, the more likely they are to perform well academically; they get higher grades and score better on standardized tests. Think about it – makes perfect sense – the higher the student participation, i.e., the more active the learning, the higher the content retention.  With this idea as the foundation of instruction, teachers can shape curriculum and instruction to maximize engagement and increase student participation.

With this instructional shift, the focus of the classroom moves from teacher-centered to student-centered.  As Daniel Pink said, “We need to prepare our kids for their futures not our past”. When students are taught this way, it is essential to walk in their shoes. When you understand your learners’ drive and motivation you will plan lessons that engage minds and have students craving to learn. When students are excited, you will be able to construct a lesson that shows learners the “why,” the “what” and the “how” of the learning. By tapping into the learner’s real desire to learn, you make the learning process more effective. The more you customize the learning, the more you stimulate intrinsic motivation!

I believe there are three keys to blended learning to ensure engagement and relevance:  

• Flexibility
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency

Too often, educators hear students ask, “When will I ever use this in the real world?” Honestly, it’s a great question–one that we should all spend more time thinking about. We are not planning lessons that are relevant to the students’ lives.  Just because a long list of vocabulary words is compiled on an iPad doesn’t mean it is digital learning. If it doesn’t have relevance to the topic or the students, the digital tool is irrelevant. Students need a personal connection to the material, whether that’s through engaging them emotionally or connecting the new information to previously acquired knowledge. Only then can you select the digital tools that match.

In a blended learning environment, be sure to select tools that match learning to ensure the content fosters collaboration and conversation. When a school is a 1:1 digital community, it is easy to forget about designing lessons for collaboration and conversation. Educators need to look for opportunities in the content design to ask reflective questions that will stimulate inquiry and conversation. Educators should stimulate student thinking with questions that will generate genuine discussions; conversations that move beyond reciting the right answer.

Once you know your learners, make a collaborative learning plan and select your tools – dig into digital tools/applications as a means to support your newly established blended learning environment. 

cross posted at techinnovation.live 

Dr. Matthew X. Joseph is currently the Director of Digital Learning and Innovation for the Milford Public School District in Milford, MA. Before coming to Milford, he was a building principal for 11 years in Natick, MA and Attleboro, MA. Other professional roles include: classroom teacher, district professional development specialist supporting leadership and technology instruction. Matt holds licenses in general education, school administration, and Massachusetts superintendent. His master’s degree is in special education and earned his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Boston College.

Throughout his career, Matt focused on what is in the best interest of students and pushing the limits to achieve excellence in schools. He is an instructional leader constantly looking for student and school improvement while building community and continued teacher improvement. He is passionate about building a collaborative school culture, creating a school of learners utilizing 21st century instructional tools, and developing leaders’ communication techniques to enhance instruction and parent communication.

Follow Dr. Joseph on twitter at @MatthewXJoseph or read his blog techinnovation.live

I have written to annoying lengths about my love for the connection between the 5E Inquiry Learning Cycle and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

The below diagram outlines the serendipitous connections between these two cycles well:  

In preparation for a professional development workshop I facilitated yesterday, I created a lesson planning templatebased on the above connection that I am very happy with.

My hope is to use a copy of the template for each cycle I create in my biology and chemistry classes for the upcoming semester. 

Unlike previous templates I have used, this one leverages a Google Slide template, as a planning, rather than presentation document. The flexibility of editing slides, embedding video, etc., makes Google Slides an incredibly flexible medium.

You will notice that each of the five phase of the 5E/Hero's Journey cycle hyperlinks to an associated slide. I love this feature as it creates a contained pedagogical cycle, allowing the teacher to focus on each phase individually, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WHOLE.

As an educator, this connectivity is very comforting, and as Jon Stewart said: "A structure that allows for creativity". You will notice that each slide has two portions: 1) Lesson Procedure and 2) Technology integration.

By "tagging" the technology on as an afterthought, this template forces the teacher to first think pedagogically (How does this procedure serve the inquiry cycle as a whole?), then procedurally (How will I make structure the class to accomplish the goal of the specific portion in the cycle?) and finally technologically (How can I leverage technology to make this lesson even more efficient, productive, meaningful, etc.?).

Thus, technology serves the pedagogy by simply following the template. An ideal teaching tool IMO. Click here and "make a copy" of the template for your own use. The template is also embedded below for ease of viewing. Enjoy!  

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

 “[A]t some time in the day we need to disconnect, reconnect, and look around us.” – Laurie Colwin 

One resolution my elementary students and I are setting is to be more healthy with our digital use. I teach technology to 450+ second to fifth graders. In class we reviewed and discussed the article, Computers and Your Health. Although the article only mentions computers, I let students know the information also applies to using mobile devices, game consoles, iPads and tablets. This article is awesome to use with children, because the information is illustrated with colorful drawings. The article lists how staying on the computer too long can lead to several health issues, such as muscle and joint pain, lack of creativity, eye strain, and more.

After students share their experiences with some of these health issues, we come up with tips for staying healthy with our digital devices. We compare these tips with the ones listed in the article. Then students used 3D paint to illustrate at least one tip. I’ve added a collage of a few of their digital posters below.

The main message I want students to take away is to take breaks from their digital devices frequently and do something active like playing outside, dancing, or stretches. In class we take breaks and stretch our hands and fingers and legs. My hope is students will begin to do this outside of class. Below are some wonderful videos and resources to motivate your students to take breaks and learn how to maintain mental and physical health. If you enjoy these tips, then register for my upcoming Fully Accredited online courses (In-Service and Graduate course options) that begin on January 20th. Choose from several different classes, such as Connected Educators: Harnessing the Power of Social Media and Methodologies for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 

Resources

Go Noodle is a wonderful resource with several short videos geared for brain breaks! Find dance-alongs, yoga videos, mindfulness activities, and other ways to move!

Get students moving with icebreakers, warmers, and fillers! Find tons of templates, activities and ideas here.

With the Move It Chrome browser extension, you can set notification intervals on the students’ computers, and the screen will present a random brain break and exercise to complete.

The Move to Learn video channel has several short video that gets students out of their seats and learning. Some videos are as short as 30 seconds.

This Classroom Breaks Pinterest Board has several posters and visuals to engage students.

The Active Learning Active Play Brain Breaks Guide categorizes their brain break activities. Find activities to learn vocabulary, spelling, math, social studies and science.

UNICEF Kid Power describes different brain breaks, including ones with play dough.

Action for Healthy Kids provides tips, ideas, and lists several resources. 

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

More and more district and school staff are catching on to the advice of superintendents like  Joe Sanfelippo who encourage staff to take every opportunity to say good things about their school. 

Sanfelippo's not alone. Supt Daniel Frazier has put together a list of more than 1500 Tweeting supts. When the person in charge takes seriously the power of telling our own stories staff start to follow suit. 

However, they also need guidance. When educators share and celebrate successes, they serve as role models. It's important to provide some direction on what to keep in mind when posting to social media. 

Guidance On Posting Like A Role Model

Some advice on how to post responsibly and in ways that garner engagement.  

Remember the Golden Rule

Praise and celebrate publicly, advise or criticize privately 

Help others be better

Ask yourself this: After people read our posts, are they better than when they started to read? If so, post freely. If not reconsider. More on this at this post from Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis 

Be consistent 

Remember to convey your brand / image 

Tag 

• Tag people (with permission) 
• Places 

Hashtag 

• Know the right hashtags 
• Limit hashtags to one or two for more engagement
• Tweets with more than two hashtags have less engagement 

Use Images 

• Posts with images draw more attention
• They are twice as likely to have engagement
• Use original images

Include Links

• Tweets with links receive a higher retweet rate 
• Lets people know where they can learn more

Post Accessibly 

• Use alt text for images 
• Use plain language 
• Use camel case for hashtags First letter of each word in caps i.e. #EdTech

Your Turn

What do you think? Can you keep this guidance in mind when posting? Is there anything you'd do differently? Anything missing? 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

As I reflect upon my own makerspace journey, I can't help but recognize the exponential growth of makerspace products over the years.  When we first launched our space over 6 years ago, I could almost count the number of makerspace products on the market on one hand.  Since then, there has been a tsunami of products that have entered this space, and while that has been exciting to witness, it also has been daunting.  Educators are often left wondering what products they should purchase and which ones are right for their makerspaces, or even worse yet, they end up purchasing products other people do, just because they are trendy. In my Letter F post of my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series, I touched upon the importance of 'Fundamental, not ornamental'.  It is critical to select products that work best to support your makerspace.  Be sure to check out my newest book for guidance on that.   It has become a tradition, here at Worlds of Making, to announce our top ten makerspace products each year, hoping to help expand the thinking of educators as they select products for their spaces.  We aim to select products that are unique and offer a different experience than other products in the makerspace market.  Be sure to check out our previous top ten lists.  

 I am proud to introduce to you, the Worlds of Making Top Ten Makerspace Favorites of 2018! 

1) Brickstuff

Brickstuff is the perfect way to light up Lego builds.  This starter kit includes everything you need to get started. No electronics or soldering knowledge is necessary to set up these lights and start using them right away. Each flexible 2-LED Light Strip has a self-adhesive backing, which allows easy mounting to almost any surface. The strips are flexible, allowing you to mount them even on curved surfaces. This kit also includes a battery pack, so you can be up and running right away.  This kit is ready to use with any microcontroller or robotics project too. Here is one of our creations: 

2) Unruly Splats

Movement, and the value and impact it has on learning, is a research-based practice.  This is also true in relation to STEM. This is why we love Unruly Splats so much.  Unruly Splats describes themselves as seriously fun, recess-style play that teaches kids how to code, and they are not wrong.  Their programmable floor tiles are made to be stepped on!  They pair with a tablet are preloaded with tons of recess-style play games. Kids first play the preloaded games then they change the code, ultimately learning how to code on their own through active, recess-style play.  We had fun playing running bases in our hallway at school, and completing the challenges in their app.  We even created our own fireworks show: 

3) Everblock Systems

EverBlock is a life-sized modular building block that allows you to build nearly anything.  EverBlock is the perfect compliment to any STEM and STEAM program and stores compactly in the classroom for use. Blocks allow children to explore principles of design, engineering, and mathematics in a fun and exciting way.   These blocks are so well built and what jumps out the most is their structural integrity.  This makes them ideal for collaborative building and engineering projects. Blocks are light enough for elementary students to work with easily, yet sturdy enough to build full scale, reliable, weight-bearing structures for advanced STEM classrooms.  Be sure to check out their STEM education page here.  Be sure also to check out their cardboard version here. 

4) IDEO Method Cards

With so much focus in makerspaces being on the design process, the IDEO Method Cards are the perfect companion.  These cards are low-tech and offer 51 ways to inspire design, while keeping human at the center of the process, the whole time. Each card describes one method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it. These cards are not a "how to" guide. They are a design tool meant to help you explore new approaches and develop your own. The deck can be used to take a new view, to inspire creativity, to communicate with a team, or to turn a corner.  Read more about them here. 

5) Dowling Magnets Junior Architect Wonderboard®Magnet Set

In a previous post, I outlined ways in which educators can move beyond just creating Lego walls in their makerspace, and create other kinds of interactive learning walls (and tables!).  This magnet set fits into that space perfectly.  Thus set allows children to design and construct their own imaginative building, while exploring art, spatial geometry, and engineering principles.  The set Includes 150 magnets (architectural elements), instruction sheet with designs and background information; as well as a double-sided, magnetic dry-erase board!  They also have printable magnet sheets here. 

6) AlphaBriks and MathBriks 

For those of you who read my first book, you will know that my point of entry into the maker movement was through literacy.  I am always on a quest to further integrate literacty into makerspaces.  In terms of STEM and makerspaces, I feel that Mathematics is often overlooked, as compared to the other letters in STEM.  This is why I love these AlphaBriks and MathBriks sets from StrictlyBriks so much.   

7) Mini-Materials 

The team at Mini Materials has really creating something very unique and special.  Avoiding plastics and paint, they have created mini versions of products familar to the contruction world.  Supplies like cinder blocks, red bricks, jersey barriers, pallets and lumber all made the same way their replicated versions are made. Using real cement, wood and nails these are all handmade in the USA. They are fantastic teaching tools for math and architecture.  We even built a sandbox to house the materials and allow our students to build! Take a look at the blue prints they have available too. Check out their Ultimate Sample Set here. 

8) Chalk of the Town 

This Chalkboard T-Shirt from Chalk of the Town caught my eye a few years ago now, and we have had fun with it ever since. While it may be unrealisitc to assume that every child in a school could have one of these, they are perfect for makerspace clubs or smaller groups.  Students can capture who they are as makers, and where it with pride, while at the same time, having the ability to express themselves creatively!  These shirts can be used over and over again, as they are markable and erasable. My son and I had fun with a few too! 

9) Rockwell Tools- Jawhorse

Last year, marked the first year that we got heavy into woodworking in our makerspace.  One of my students even created a shelf for my kitchen!   This portable Jawhorse Work Station by Rockwell Tools, was something my students found that said would have come in handy during that time.  With space being an issue for many educators in their makerspace, and mobility continuing to be more and more of a focus, this tool fits the bill perfectly! 

10) Hands-On Coding

While I understand the conflict of interest by including one of my own products on this top ten list, we are too proud and excited about this product not to include it!  It has been an interesting journey to be able to actually manufacture a product as a member of the amazing Hands-On Coding team!  Being three educators with over 50 years of combined experience, we realized there was a gap and a need in terms of teaching computer science, that we knew we had to fill.  Our Hands-On Coding blocks allow for a screen free way of learning the fundamentals of computer science, while also allowing children to get up and get moving and act out their algorithms.  We believe strongly in keeping the human at the center of the process and have worked hard to put these blocks into the hands of children far and wide.  Our blocks are now in countries around the world and have had a profound impact on many.  We are looking so forward to all that is ahead in 2019!  

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

Over the past few years, I’ve had the chance to speak at a variety of literacy conferences. From Nebraska to Maryland, Orlando to Austin, I’ve shared strategies for integrating digital tools into the classroom and favorite online resources for educators. High on my list of favorite resources is Storyline Online.

If you haven’t heard of Storyline Online before it is a free resource with read aloud videos. On their website, you can search for different children’s picture books or browse their library. Each book is brought to life through the narration of a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and illustrations from the book. Since the narrators are all SAG members, you’ll see lots of familiar faces with actors both you and your students may recognize.

In addition to accessing on the web, you can subscribe to Storyline Online’s YouTube channelor download one of their mobile apps. Because it is such a dynamic online tool and available on lots of platforms, I featured it as one of my picks for this year’s NYSCATE App Smackdown (see my “fierce” picture). I’d like to think it helped me win this year’s event too since it was definitely a crowd pleaser!

Read Aloud Videos

Each read aloud video from Storyline Online varies in length. But all include engaging narration and illustrations that jump off the page. You can turn on the closed captioning if you wish and play them on any device connected to the Internet. Head over to this page to see a list of all of the titles they have to offer. In the list below I share some ways to make the most of this resource. If you have ideas too, add them to the comments section or share on social media and tag me (@classtechtips).

Read-to-Me Stations

The videos from Storyline Online are perfect for students to explore independently or with partners during a station rotation. Students can listen to one of the videos and then respond to what they have read. This reading experience is the sort of activity that fits perfectly into a 15-20 minute station rotation and can connect to a specific reading or listening comprehension goal you’ve set for students. Regular readers of the blog have seen me share blended learning resources on the site before – including this tip of sharing videos with Seesaw.

A read-to-me station with Storyline Online might include giving students a list of one or more videos to choose from during this time. Then they can listen and watch on a tablet or Chromebook. When students finish reading, they can respond with an illustration, answer a question, or jump into a discussion about the book.

Introduction to Children’s Literature

A few months ago I visited a school where we discussed a range of favorite read aloud books. There were a lot of brand new teachers in one of the grade level team meetings I led. As we talked about our favorite children’s books, I could tell that some of the titles the veteran teachers shared weren’t ones the new teachers had heard of before.

I immediately thought of Storyline Online, a resource I typically discuss for student and family use. If you are looking to increase your knowledge of children’s literature – maybe you moved from fifth grade to first grade and need some new book titles – Storyline Online is a great resource. You might play a couple of videos when folding laundry to get an introduction to a new book to share with students!

Family Read Alouds

Every family’s reading experience and comfort level is different. In your classroom, some students might be surrounded by confident readers at home. Other families who may not feel comfortable reading aloud a picture book to their child. Storyline Online is a fantastic resource for families to explore outside of the classroom.

You might send a list of a few links home in a school newsletter each month with a few suggestions of books for families to explore. This strategy can help families get a feel for the types of books shared in a classroom or extend a reading experience. For example, if you read Enemy Pie aloud for your students one day, try sending home the link to the video to families the same week. This way families can listen along with their children and talk about the same book explored in the classroom.

Read Aloud Teacher Guides

In addition to placing this fantastic video content at your fingertips — for free — there are also individual teacher guides that go along with each book. You’ll find these guides on the landing page for the individual videos. The drop-down menu lets you access both a teacher and parent guide which are full of high-quality resources you can tailor to your group of students.

From discussion questions to clear standard alignment, each teacher guide has something to offer educators. You might use some of the resources just as they are. Or you might tailor some of the questions or ideas to learning goals you’ve set for students.

For example, if you want to read Here Comes the Garbage Barge with your students, all you have to do is type in the title for a keyword search. Then you’ll see a page like the one in the image below. Right underneath the video is a button labeled “activity guides.”

When you click on the activity guide button, you’ll see both a teacher and parent version. This spot is where you will find a PDF lesson guide full of information ready for your next English Language Arts lesson or cross-curricular connection. The image below provides a quick snapshot of the resource you’ll find when visiting the Here Comes the Garbage Barge landing page. 

I can’t wait for you to dive into this robust resource with your class! If you are looking for reading response ideas, take a look at this post featuring three reading activities. You can tailor each of these activities to any of the books in the Storyline Online library!

Download my free reading poster with more favorites! 

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

Philosophically, I appreciate the debate over grading in schools. I even agree with parts of Alphie Kohn's case against grading. All that being said, in a few weeks I go back to school. To my classroom. To a vocation I LOVE. To a career that provides for my family. And grades are a reality. They are required. They aren't going away. 

Keeping this in mind, it does me no good as an educator to engage in debates around the efficacy of grading. I simply want to serve my students the best I can. And, in some ways, I don't think grades should be terminated. Perhaps it is up to us, as educators, to develop new, and thoughtful "hacks" to our current system. 

To maximize the A-F system in our favor. In a way that serves our students. Builds metacognition. Limits apathy. Motivates. etc., etc., etc. I believe this is possible. And, here's the clincher: IT IS MORE POSSIBLE THAN WAKING UP TOMORROW AND GRADES BEING ELIMINATED. SO, IT'S ON ME TO BE BETTER FOR MY STUDENTS. 

So...in the spirit of sharing super tangible, grassroots techniques, below is what I'm going to try next semester. Disclaimer: It involves some "old school" moves, such as transitioning to a teacher paper and pen gradebook, but please know, it is all in the spirit of pedagogy. In the spirit of my Ed Tech Mission statement if you will. 

1. Organize each topic into 3 standards for simplicity and consistency. (e.g., 1.1-1.3; 2.1-2.3, etc.)
2. Grade one short free response quiz, and one activity/lab per standard. That's it. 
3. Create Google Sheet template for students to track their own performance. The template should be pre filled with standards for the year to instill student awareness of curriculum, and should also automatically generate their grade. Click here for template in my chemistry class. Click here for template in my medical biology class (note: I created these today. They are rough and will change). 
4. Keep track of grades in a paper gradebook and NOT in our school's online system. 
5. Only update grades at the quarter time. 
6. When students ask me "What's my grade?". Respond with "Update your spreadsheet with your grades. Then tell me."
7. When parents ask for, or are interested in, student grade updates, tell them "Your child has a spreadsheet that outlines their grades. Ask them. Here [insert link to students gradebook] is view only link to your child's gradebook that THEY maintain."
8. Inform administration that I will be using this system, rather than the required system of posting grades to our online grade book for parents and students to freaking OBSESSIVELY check. Recite the below rationale: 

This revised system will provide students with the ability to constantly know their "grade" in our class, while simultaneously developing enhanced student awareness of their own performance and build student agency over the grading process. 

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com. 

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

I’ve worked with language learners in over 20 countries. I’ve seen first hand how technology can be used in incredible ways to motivate and engage language learners of any age. Even with little access to technology teachers can add background music to a story or show students a short clip to spark conversation or inspire ideas for writing. I regularly share free web tools, resources, and tips on ESL Library to help teachers find great resources to use with their learners. Below are a list of the articles I’ve written in 2018. If you enjoy these tips, then check out my Fully Accredited online course (In-Service and Graduate course options), Methodologies and Best Practices for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 

• 10 Uplifting Ways Students Can Use Technology
• 7 Incredible Websites & Tools to Enhance English Comprehension & Fluency
• Engage Learners with Bell-Ringer Activities, Warm Ups, and Starters
• A World Cup of Knowledge! 18+ Resources & Activities
• 19 Award-Winning English Language Teaching Innovations
• Amplify Story Time! 9 Tips + Fun Resources & Apps
• Congregate for Change! 9 Advocacy Groups & Events Enhancing ELT
• 25 Engaging Ways to Practice English with Voice Assistants

Challenge: Try one of these resources or tips to engage and support your language learners. 

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Even innovative educators recognize the value of unplugging a bit during the holidays for family games. Here are some recommendations that may not be on your list. This list is gathered from a group of innovative educators who gathered over the holidays and shared some of their favorite games to play with family and friends. 

Games for the Holidays

The Metagame

The Metagame is the ultimate cure for awkward silences. It sparks conversation about everything from high art to trashy entertainment and everything in­ between. It's not about knowing facts — it's about having opinions and sharing them with your friends.

Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game in which players work as a team to treat infections around the world while gathering resources for cures. First published in 2007, the game's unique combination of cooperative gameplay, engrossing premise, and compelling design have proved a hit with everyone from hardcore gamers to casual players. 

Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice is fun for any zombie fan (or the whole zombie family). The 13 custom dice are your victims. Push your luck to eat their brains, but stop before the shotgun blasts end your turn! Two or more can play. Each game takes 10 to 20 minutes, and can be taught in a single round.

Monopoly Game: Cheaters Edition

Lean into those iconic (yet unspoken) Monopoly moments in which rules are bent, money is borrowed, and funny business is welcomed. The outlandish suggestions on the board, cards, and rules encourage players to express their inner cheater to own it all while they buy, sell, dream, and scheme. Fake a die roll, steal some bills from the bank, and even skip out on rent. Complete a cheat to get a reward, but fail a cheat and pay the consequences! No houses in this edition – only hotels – and pretend handcuff unit may leave players ""chained"" to the board. 

Mindtrap

Two teams try to solve logical riddles and moves on a board (which actually is a paper from a block with a "racing track"). Each time team comes up with the right solution they may move one step and demand another question or throw a die (0-3) and let the turn continue to the other team.

Your Turn

What do you think? Have you played any of these games? Are any new to you? What are some non-traditional games you might add to the list?

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

It all started on a recent visit I had the pleasure of taking to the North Pole.  It was actually a once in a lifetime experience, one that I will always remember. While I promised Santa I would not divulge secrets I discovered, he did hand me a manuscript and gave me a wink. I could see the amazing sparkle in his eyes as he waited for me to discover a power he was already aware of. I looked at the cover of this torn and faded, yet delightful looking, old book.  I could tell it had been constantly used due to the lack of North Pole magical dust on its soon to be engaging pages.  I spent the next few hours looking through a wonderful collection of written journals. This manuscript was entitled “The Santa Projects”.  How did he know my yearning to learn more about projects?  I then remembered that, of course, I was sitting in front of Santa. He probably had quite a database of everything I had ever dreamed of or desired from my very first teddy bear. Here was a compilation of all of the important projects ever done at this amazing place… at the top of the world. Here were the projects that Santa had brought to his entire staff in order to engage, motivate, educate, and provide means of collaboration and communication. The first project caught my eye. I couldn’t help but smile as I read each of Santa’s journal entries. Allow me to share one of his projects with you. 

The Santa Projects

Project Name – Mission Possible…. The Big Delivery 

Need To Know –  (An outstanding project is based on a student need to know. It is this desire that promotes engagement and excitement in children. It provides the motivation for learning significant content.) Santa Notes – It will be important to communicate with all of the elves and various staff my desire to travel the world in one night delivering toys to all of the good girls and boys. We will have a meeting, record everything in Santa Docs, based on what we will need to know to make this mission possible. As we answer these important questions I will mark them off our collaborative list. I anticipate a few questions such as,  “Given that the earth is rotating… how many hours do we really have for our trip?” 

The Driving Question–  (The Driving Question is the key to any effective PBL project.  This question must be direct and open a student-centric understanding of what is to be eventually accomplished and learned. While giving the students a sense of mission, it is proactive and open-ended.) Santa Notes – After working with various teams we have decided that a good driving question could be as follows: How can we devise a plan to deliver presents to all the good children in the world in one night? I know this will be exciting for the elves and I am sure the reindeer will be clamoring to get their hoofs into it. I am certain our journey to finding this answer will not only raise more questions but will also provide the rigor my staff thrives on. 

Voice and Choice –  (An effective project must allow for all students to have a voice and a choice. This might allow students to pick an area of study or may give a selection of various final products to demonstrate learning. This voice and choice allow the project to have individual meaning and relevance to each student.) Santa Notes – I must allow all of the workers at the North Pole to participate in a meaningful way while holding them accountable to the Driving Question. Who knows what contribution each group and individual might be able to come up with. In fact, I have already heard that my engineers are drawing a picture of a sleigh. Not sure I know why, but maybe I will learn from them. 

21st Century Skills –  (Students must be allowed to use skills that are authentic and provide real world opportunities. Teachers must provide learning opportunities and facilitate important skills including collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. It is important to also assess these skills as part of PBL.) Santa Notes – I plan to utilize team building activities to help facilitate project success. At the North Pole, we must realize that in order to pull off this miracle it will involve a collective wisdom from the entire crowd. We will use modern North Pole technology including Santa Docs, Twinkler, and Elfmodo to collaborate. In fact, I noticed the elves are already building a new system “The Magic Net”. It is supposed to connect the North Pole with the entire world of children’s desires. I am not sure why, but I am sure I will learn from them. 

Inquiry and Innovation – (A good PBL study will allow students to not just come up with answers… but also discover new and amazing questions. This will allow students to think outside the box as they remix, create, and innovate. It assures a final product that shows the learning that was acquired from the initial Driving Question.) Santa Notes – Everyone at the workshop is finding out that there is not an easy answer to our Driving Question. It seems we are getting more questions than answers right now. I have encouraged our staff to use Santapedia and NorthPoleOogle but they say it does not always give the answer… again more questions. I have told everyone to tinker… something they have experience with at the toy shop. They did come up with a new gift they called Tinkertoys which could be a hit. I had to get them back on track. Outside, I have noticed the reindeer jumping from the fir trees and one is even playing with a red light bulb. I know it seems very hectic… but I do feel we might be on to something. 

Feedback and Revision –   (Students must be allowed to obtain feedback through critiques from their teacher, peers, real world mentors, and themselves. Through this, students must learn to reflect and revise to create a better product as they travel a road of formative assessment.) Santa Notes – I am finding myself encouraging all my workers to reflect and critique themselves and others. This is can be more valuable than always using one of my NPARs (North Pole Assessment Rubrics). In fact, I saw the engineer and elves constantly critiquing each other on what they called OBETB (Operation Big Enough Toy Bag). Perhaps if I do a little check with one of my formative assessment rubrics I will find out what that is all about. 

Publicly Present The Product –  (Providing students with a public and authentic audience is crucial in the design of a good PBL learning unit. It brings meaning and provides motivation for a final product that represents the quality and rigor that should be expected. This audience can be face to face or could be virtual using the World Wide Web.)  Santa Notes – I am so excited for the workers here at the North Pole. Tomorrow night they will be presenting their plan for Mission Possible…. The Big Delivery to a live audience of the North Pole Geographic  Society, Magic Bag Engineers, Animal Aviator Experts, Portable Light Bulb Innovators, The Association of Sleigh Vehicle Workers, and NEXRAD.  It will all be available on Santa Vision. Having all of these experts in the audience will ensure that all involved will take great pride in their work while demonstrating what they have learned and have now made possible.  I am still puzzled as to why we have invited the Animal Aviator Experts and NEXRAD. Sound like a high flying idea! 

Significant Content –   (A PBL final outcome should provide evidence that students learned the required content set forth by curricular standards. While the 21st-century skills are important… they should complement and be used as tools for learning this content. The project is the process!) Santa Notes – Wow… while everyone has become better communicators, collaborators, and critical thinkers I see that the important concepts needed to make this project a success have become a reality. All of the workers, elves, and animals understand the important North Pole curricular concepts of magical engineering, animal aviation and linguistics, possibility planning, and bottomless bag technology. Most of all, they have discovered the wonderful skill of miracle manicuring. I really do believe in PBL! 

 As I was sitting in front of Santa there were two more elements that appeared before me like magic. I read the text as fast as it appeared. He looked at me as he winked and smiled… as if he was about to go up a chimney. I soon realized he had even been aware of some of the new ideas found in the new Gold Standards. Of course, he was aware! I continued to read with delight as I discovered even more amazing magic! 

Reflection –   (It is this process that demands the important skill of metacognition. It is not until a learner thinks about the learning… that real learning takes place. Educators must allow students time to reflect as they build their own understanding of important content and concepts.) Santa Notes – I have always enjoyed the work of John Dewey… after-all he was always on my good list. I encourage all the workers at the North Pole to reflect on what they learn while as they build and innovate on all the products at the workshop! It is amazing to see all the learning that takes place as we constantly create a wonderful experience for all the boys and girls throughout the world! 

Authenticity –  (It is important that students have an authentic learning experience that is meaningful. Allowing students to make a difference to their surroundings and the world outside the classroom is essential. Education must be real and provide the students that important… so what… to learning.) Santa Notes – Authenticity might be one of the most important qualities we promote. After-all like PBL… the North Pole experience is about making it real! 

As I handed this precious manuscript back to Santa,  I thanked him for confirming my belief in how powerful a project can be. Upon my return, I continued to learn more about Project Based Learning and discovered the power it has for providing authentic and powerful learning experiences for students. This knowledge just might be the very best gift I ever received from Santa. I’m still smiling as I recall the other projects I read about in the wonderful book on my very special visit. Projects with names like the ones you find below. 

1. I Can Get Down the Chimney… How Do I Get Up?
2. The Big Blizzard… Can We Find a Way to Light the Path?
3. Conquering the 24 Hour Cookies and Milk Dilemma!
4. Reindeer… Keeping their Minds to the Ground!
5. Making and Keeping It Real!

I hope you enjoyed this very special message that Santa shared with me. Please take a moment to share this post with other educators across the world. Please accept my present to you, which is another year of postings, by subscribing by email or RSS and follow me on Twitter (mjgormans). You will also find a treasure of resources covering 21st-century learning, STEM, PBL, and technology integration for the classroom. Again, take a moment to share this blog and even give it a re-tweet so that other educators can experience the magic of PBL. May you find the peace, joy, blessing, and magic of this very special season… and to all a good night! Mike Gorman (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

AnyFlip is a cool tool that will convert your PDFs into cool-looking flipbooks. Once you sign up, you can get your online flipbook by simply uploading your pdf on the website. You don’t need to know any coding to be able to do that. Once you publish it, you can share it online, or embed on your website and your blog.

[SAFE YOUTUBE]

We can use this tool for the booklets or the newsletters that we are sharing with the students or the parents. We can also encourage our students to create their projects or share their stories using a flip-book!

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

It has been a whirlwind first day at Adobe MAX! This morning started off with an exciting keynote and an emphasis on creativity as an essential literacy for students. As a K-12 educator, I spent the keynote with my eyes wide open thinking about the possibilities for student creators.

Creativity makes a difference

The energy from Sunday’s special Educator Day at MAX overflowed into the morning of the conference’s first day. With a special breakfast for K-12 educators before the keynote, I had a chance to chat with other educators attending this week’s event. Their goals this week are to explore new tools and learn from the experience of fellow educators.

At the keynote presentation today, we heard about new creation tools. These will definitely change the way we think about creativity in the classroom. If you followed along during the announcements you heard about the new iOS version of Photoshop scheduled for a 2019 release. This is a powerful way for students to create from a mobile device.

In addition to the Photoshop announcement, I was so excited to hear about Premiere Rush, a movie making tool for creatives. Students who are ready to tell the story of their learning through video can use this creation tool for a variety of purposes. As I was listening to an overview of Rush today, I couldn’t help but think of the ways this tool connects to Spark Video— another favorite from Adobe. For students who are ready to take their movie making to the next level, Rush is the perfect tool to explore.

There is nothing quite like hearing directly from creative professionals to help you understand the power of creativity in our everyday lives. The keynotes that kicked off MAX gave a voice and a picture of the ways creativity makes a difference in our lives.

Inject creativity into your classroom

One highlight from the day was having the opportunity to present on Adobe Spark in the classroom. Over the past few years I’ve shared Spark at conferences around the world. But most memorably spent time side-by-side with students and teachers and they dive into these powerful creation tools.

On Monday, Ben Forta, Adobe’s senior director of education initiatives, and I led a session on Adobe Spark in the classroom. This session focused on ways educators use Spark to empower students as storytellers. We examined how Spark Post, Page, and Video are all used in K-12 settings to help students tell the story of their learning.

I showed off one of my favorite workflows for Spark that combines these three powerful tools. The theme of the Spark-combo creation I demonstrated was Vermicomposting. First, I created a graphic with Spark Post sharing a tip for getting started with composting with worms. Then, I made a Spark video with reasons why classrooms should consider setting up a compost bin. Next, I opened up Spark Page and added text I had written in a Google doc.

For the very last step, I added my Spark post and Spark video creation to the Spark page so all of the vermicomposting examples came together in one place! If you are here at MAX this week we are hosting a repeat of the session on Wednesday morning.

Adobe Spark in action

The first day of the conference was especially notable because it marks the release of “40 Ways to Inject Creativity into Your Classroom with Adobe Spark.” Ben Forta and I wrote this book and are so excited to share it with educators at MAX and beyond. It’s available in the MAX Bookstore at the conference for folks attending MAX this week to grab a copy, and also available on Amazon.

Educators and Spark enthusiasts who are following along at home can take advantage of a special bonus opportunity this week. In this post I share the details of the extra videos and graphic organizers you can snag if you purchase “40 Ways to Inject Creativity into Your Classroom with Adobe Spark.” Ben and I can’t wait for you to check it out.

[Everyone Can Create - Teacher Resources from Apple Education]

Looking forward at MAX

There are a few more events on my schedule I’m looking forward to at MAX this week. In addition to repeating our Adobe Spark in the classroom session, I am counting down to MAX Sneaks. This is my third Adobe MAX, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for MAX Sneaks this year. Tiffany Haddish, actress and author, is hosting this event so I know it’s going to be fantastic.

Also on my agenda are tomorrow’s sessions related to education. You can find out more about sessions with an education angle on this page created by Adobe Education’s team. If you’re here at MAX this week, reach out to say hello — and if you’re following along remotely, check out my Instagram stories for more of a behind-the-scenes look.

I've had the pleasure of working with this company. All opinions are my own.

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

NASA has a huge image, video and audio file library that you can do public search, download or embed the out-of-this-world files. We can do the search using keywords across more than 60 collections with a treasure trove of more than 140,000 files. We can also embed the content to your blog, lms or website. It is a living website, where new and archival images, video and audio files continually are being added. The students can also display the metadata associated with images.

[Mystery Animal Game By Google]

If you are planning on a lesson about aeronautics, astrophysics, Earth science, human spaceflight, and more, this is a great resource that we can use or recommend our students to check.

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

If you are like me as a science teacher, you simultaneously live the acronym "STEM" and are exhausted by its overuse in nearly every blog, set of state standards, or professional development seminar that comes to town (Full disclosure: I often facilitate those seminars).

That being said, the more I dive into the world of Robotics (second year as an FRC Mentor and long time Summer Science Camp facilitator), the more potential I see in leveraging that which we often write off as "trendy," and that which we hold dear. Tools common to enrichment programs (MakeyMakey, Arduino, MicroBit etc.) can potentially be powerful tools in my/our Biology and Chemistry classes during the school year, while also engaging students in a disciplines they would not normally see embedded in traditional physical and life science courses.

[8 Awesome Inquiry Lesson Cycles!]

Below are links 5 activities I have done, or plan to do, that merge coding/electronics and biology/chemistry. Enjoy!

#1: MakeyMakey Interactive Eukaryotic Cell
#2: Lego Mindstorm Natural Selection Simulation#3: Modeling States of Matter with the MicroBit
#4: Drop Counter Hack with MakeyMakey
#5: Arduino Conductivity Probe

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I love podcasts. Pretty much any subject that comes up leads to me saying "I was just listening to a podcast on that the other day!"In the past I have shared posts on "12 Terrific Podcasts to Learn Something New Everyday" and "11 Great EdTech Podcasts". Well I have come across a new great podcast to add to that list… the "Edufuturists Podcast".

[What's New in Google - September 2018]

The Edufuturists podcast is a weekly show hosted by Ben Whitaker and Dan Fitzpatrick, and focuses on the future of education and the impact of technology. They have one guest on each week for an interview that is limited to exactly 15 minutes. As much as I appreciate podcasts of all different lengths, it is exciting to find one that packs so much great content into only 15 minutes (or about 10 minutes for me since I listen to everything on fast speed.)

I recently had the honor and pleasure to be a guest on Ben and Dan's podcast. Even though my voice sounds terrible from a rough cold I was fighting, the show is still excellent! You can access the episode with the link below:
Edufuturists Episode 4 - Eric Curts

And you can find all of the other episodes, and links to subscribe to the podcast at: www.theedutechproject.com/edufuturists

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

"There’s no such things as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

October is National Bullying Prevention month. I like to focus on getting students to spread kindness and feel the benefits of being kind versus being mean to others. Many children play social games, such as Roblox and Fortnite, and experience cyberbullying much more than we did in the past. Many students have shared with me their experiences of others being mean, trash talking, or cursing at them during the games. Many of the children don’t realize the impact of their reactions or words on others. To help students reflect more on how their words and actions impact others our objective this month is, “How to be kind online and offline!” Below are some resources and ideas related to this theme so you can challenge your students to choose to be kind online and offline.

Ideas and Resources

Kind Acts Take One Flyers– I’ve posted these flyers in my classroom to provide some suggestions on how students can be kind to their peers within the school. Students can choose (not required) to tear off one of the ideas and commit to completing that act within the week. Feel free to download and use any of these flyers (V1, V2, V3, V4). You can also quickly create your own with Poster My Wall, a free web tool for creating posters and flyers.

Common Sense Power of Words Video– Students really loved this video about what to do when you’re bullied during a game. The video lead to powerful sharing and discussions with my elementary students about trash talking and bullying online. I followed up with student pair sharing on ways to be kind during a game, especially when we win. Children suggested sharing victory dances, asking to play again, reviving someone, saying, “GG!” (Good Game), or sharing their points or rewards. The classes also wrote kind messages on a poster.

Common Sense Curriculum– The Digital Citizenship lesson plans and resources by Common Sense are full of engaging ways to get students to reflect on the choices they make online. The lesson plans come with Google Slides you can edit, objectives, and reflective activities and handouts. For example, my students used the Power of Words handout to give advice to someone being bullied in a game.

A Kindness Tree Project by PBS– The class creates a tree on one wall with examples, drawings, and photos of how people have been kind to them.

[14 Back to School Tips and Tons of Resources!]

Free Rice– When students finish their work they have a list of typing games or educational websites to visit listed on our class website. This month students also have Free Rice as one of their options, which is a free game where students can answer trivia or multiplication questions and earn rice for hungry people around the world. So many of the students are choosing to play FreeRice during their free time instead of the other games. Some have told me they even do it at home and show their parents!

Be My Eyes App– I downloaded this free app to help blind people with real world problems they face and keep it on in case we get a call during class. I showed students the website’s video and explained how the app gives us the opportunity to help others. The students are so excited some had their parents download the app. Some asked if we could call and just randomly help.

Digital Compass Game– This is one of the games my older students can play to help them evaluate real situations they will face when navigating the web and joining social networks. Students have to choose what they will do for a character facing the situation then see the outcome of these choices.

Cool School Game– For elementary students. Children go into this school and help the children settle conflicts and keep the peace.

Citizen Science Projects– This is one of the student digital missions in my new book, Hacking Digital Learning with Missions. Students can help scientists and researchers with their quests to archive history or gather data to help find solutions to real world issues. Find projects for students to support any curriculum at SciStarter.com and Zooniverse.org.

Crowdfund Campaigns– Get students to create a social media campaign for a local cause and raise the funds. This is one of the student digital missions in my book.

• Check out these crowdfunding websites- DonorsChoose, PledgeCents, ClassWish, Adopt-a-Classroom, and Digital Wish.
• Find some great examples of students crowdfunding in this article.
• Check out this crowdfunding guide by Edutopia.

Create a Book to Help Others– Find free web tools and ideas here on how students can create a digital book to help others.

If you like these ideas, take one of my courses or check out my books. Ask me about training your teachers, ShellyTerrell@gmail.com!

Challenge: Challenge your students to spread kindness and reflect on how their words and actions impact others.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Post this on your wall for 2018/2019 school year as a reminder of all the dates you can celebrate ways to prepare modern learners. (May take a moment to load.)

Visit the infographic here.

[New Infographic! 8-Step Plan to Finding A Student Internship]

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several books and her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.

I spent part of last Monday working with the awesome staff of the Eisenhower Foundation at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum. They hosted 18 teachers from around the state during a week long focus on using primary sources across the curriculum.

Part of our time together was spent talking about non-traditional primary and secondary sources. The teachers were all used to using texts such as diaries, speeches, and photographs. So it was fun sharing about stuff like artifacts and audio clips. But it was even more fun playing with virtual reality tours.

I’ve shared about virtual reality before. And if you’ve been around History Tech much, you already know that I’m convinced about the power of VR tours as part of learning.

There were some interesting conversations around primary vs. secondary sources and what really makes a virtual reality tour a primary source. And, of course, we talked about possible teaching strategies and activities for using VR as part of teaching and learning. The best question that came out of the discussion was:

Is it possible for teachers or students to create our own tours like those in Google Expeditions?

Don’t ya love that? I mean, consuming VR is great. But creating VR? Even better. When kids move past consumption to creation and innovation, good things are happening.

The problem for many teachers and students has been the creation tools available for VR have been clunky, expensive, or unworkable in the classroom. But things are getting better.

A newer tool called Poly / Tour Creator now gives you and your kids the ability to create Google Expedition like tours without a lot of fuss. Plus it’s free. And because it’s also a Google tool, it works great with your inexpensive Google Cardboard VR viewers.

What’s not to like?

You can get an idea of what a Tour Creator tour looks like by checking out these examples:

• Browse through this eight scene tour titled Pioneer Life on the Prairie. Be sure to explore the hot spots embedded throughout the different scenes.
• This is a quick three scene Tour of a lookout in the Kansas Flint Hills.

Is this type of tour hard to create? I made the Flint Hills tour in less than 15 minutes using Google StreetView images. So . . . not so much. You and your kids can knock this out without a lot of trouble. This is the whole idea – having kids move up Bloom’s and across SAMR to the creation / synthesizing stage.

Here’s the cool thing. The created tour works on multiple platforms. If you viewed the two samples listed above on a laptop or Chromebook, you get the basic virtual reality view. You’re able to pan around, up or down, and click on any of the hot spots. But . . . if you view any of these tours using a smart phone, you have the option to enter the 3D version of the tour by clicking the Cardboard icon in the top right hand corner.

You’ll get the two stereoscopic screens. Insert your phone into your Cardboard and . . . boom. Instant 3D VR tour.

To highlight any of the hot spots or images embedded in your tour, simply aim the dot in the center of the screen at the hot spot and click the Cardboard’s trigger.

Explore the Tour Creator Gallery and check out the different tours available. (Be sure to click the ever present Google hamburger / three line menu in the top left corner to browse through different categories.)

Ready to make one of your own?

Go back to the home page and click the blue Sign In button the top right hand corner. Enter your Google account information. Then click the purple Create a Tour button in the middle of your screen. (You will need to do this on a laptop or desktop.)

This takes you to the Tour Creator page. You should see a button to create a New Tour and Templates. Click New Tour.

Give your tour a title. Type in a brief description of your tour. Drop in a cover photo. Select a category. Click Create.

The screen will change slightly with an Add Scene button popping up in the lower left corner. Click that.

[Google Adds New Classroom Features. Use Them Responsibly.]

By default, you’re taken to a Google StreetView map. You also have the option to upload a 360 degree photo – we’ll get to that. For now, type in a place in the search box. You should see the yellow StreetView man on the map. Drag and drop him wherever you want. When the yellow guy is where you want your view to be, click the Add Scene in the bottom right.

I used Gettysburg.

Edit your scene by naming it, editing the location if needed, and adding a brief description. This is what your users will see when they view your tour. Now for the cool part. You can insert hot spots, narration, and background audio.

To insert a hot spot, click Add Point of Interest. Drag and drop the white circle that appears anywhere on your photo. Type in a title and a description for your hot spot. To insert more hot spots, continue to click the Add Point of Interest button. You can also create image hot spots. Click the image icon below the description. Insert your image into the box that appears. Want to add audio narration? Click the speaking icon. Insert your audio file.

How sweet is that?

You can also drag and reorder your Points of Interest. This becomes the order that they appear to your users. Continue adding and editing scenes until your tour is complete. Click the blue Publish button in any scene to finish your scene and make it available for viewing. Choose Public or Unlisted. (Unlisted means your tour will not appear in search engines or the tour gallery. You can still share the tour’s link or embed the tour on your own site.)

After publishing your site, it will appear in your Tour Creator account along with the rest of your tours. Hover over your tour to view or edit your tour. Viewing your tour gives you the ability to Share or get an Embed code.

View the Civil War Battlefield tour we just made:

Easy peasy.

So you should already be thinking about the possibilities here. You can use Tour Creator to generate resources for your students. Flipped classroom materials. Study guides. Hook activities. How about creating a tour that asks your kids to figure out location based on contextual clues? Maybe your scene descriptions provide hints to the location. Have kids “race” to discover the location first.

Maybe all you do is create another piece of data that supplements other primary and secondary sources. We know how powerful 3D VR can be for engaging students with your content.

And the cool thing is that you can use your tours with on all sorts of devices. Google Cardboards with phones would be my choice but the tours are still powerful on laptops, iPads, and Chromebooks.

But I think Tour Creator is perfect for having kids develop their own tours. Rather than you creating a tour of Civi War battlefields, your kids should be doing that. Require story boards for every scene. Ask them to generate citations for their sources. What photos will they use? Why those photos? What hot spots and descriptions will go with each scene? Have them create and collect audio and narration for different scenes.

And . . .once they have their research complete and storyboards worked out, use their Google accounts to create their own Tours. Share them on your web site, highlight them via social media, and score them using an adapted digital storytelling rubric.

Ready to go deeper?

Download a 360 camera app such as FOV. Ask students to use the app to capture their own 360 degree photos. (There are other options out there.) Upload those to Tour Creator instead of using Google StreetViews.

We all love VR tools like Google Expeditions. But using Tour Creator gives you and your students the ability to go beyond simply consuming content to creating it.

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit
glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

I love writing and working on creative writing activities with my kids! Luckily, there are many tools that we can use, and here is the one that you may want to give a try.

Writer Igniter is a very user-friendly web tool that you can use with your students. Just click the shuffle button to get a randomly generated prompt. It gives you a character, a situation, a prop and a setting for your story. Then, you can start writing your unique story using the information that you have.

[SAFE YOUTUBE]

The students can work individually or in groups, and if you like, you can give them a chance to change one of the prompts.

Enjoy!

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

Are you waiting for the perfect professional learning opportunity? Now you can stop waiting and design your own DIY (Do-It-Yourself) learning that leads to edtech, coding, and makerspace certificates. Below you can find three opportunities to get you started: 

EdTech Tools & Resources

Symbaloo Certified [PAID: PRICE VARIES]

www.symbalooedu.com/certification

Symbaloo is a visual resource management tool to create customized web-mixes that organize web-based resources/bookmarks. There are three certifications available: Basic Certification, PD Certification, and a free Student Certification. 

Creating & Coding

Picademy (Raspberry Pi Foundation) [FREE]

www.raspberrypi.org/training/picademy

Become a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. Picademy is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s free face-to-face professional development program that supports educators throughout their digital making and computing journey. This two-day training event is held at venues around North America. After completing the program, educators join a community of passionate digital making practitioners. 

Pedagogy & Best Practice

Common Sense Media [FREE]

www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/certification

Common Sense Media provides educators with the tools and strategies necessary to become responsible and effective teachers (and users) of technology.  After completing a two part application process, educators who are approved, obtain a digital badge and an invitation to become a Common Sense Ambassador. 

Andrea Tejedor is the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, at Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District in New York. She is an educator, researcher and consultant who presents regionally and nationally on leadership in the educational technology arena.

Sheri McNair is the Library Media Specialist at the James I. O'Neill High School and the Head of Library Services for her district. In addition to teaching information literacy and technology integration at the high school, she is a Google Certified Educator Level 2 and serves on the district’s technology team and the inquiry facilitation team.

• CodeHS Code High School is a comprehensive teaching platform for helping schools teach computer science. This resource is free and our Cyber Security Fundamentals class has just started using it.
• Virginia Cyber Range is a Commonwealth of Virginia initiative with a mission to enhance cyber security education for students in the Commonwealth’s public high schools, colleges, and universities.
• Applieddigitalskills is Google’s free online video-based curriculum with with activities which use their tools to teach digital skills. This link takes you to the Technology, Ethics and Security link, but you can explore the other lessons here. The lessons range from middle school to adult. They also have a teacher tool box with useful pdfs.
• NetSmartz.org is a good resource for younger students. They have a video on cyber security which would work well this month. It even has a Halloween theme.
• “Meet The Teens Being Groomed As The Future Of Cyber Security” is a segment from The Today Show on June 29th, 2018 which shows teens learning how to work in the cyber security world.
• Classes: Health & Physical Education (Cyber Bullying), Cyber Security Fundamentals, Social Studies, Economics & Personal Finance, Journalism,
• November/Upcoming Events: GIS Day: Geographic Information Systems (GIS): November 14: http://www.gisday.com/

Stay tuned for a book list in November!

cross posted at collaborationsdigitalandotherwise.weebly.com

Deborah Marshall is the Department Chair of Career & Technical Education and Lisa McKnight Ward is the librarian at Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia. Both are Nationally Board Certified, former Teachers of the Year, who have taught multiple subjects including AP and IB courses. They have over a decade of experience collaborating on technology-based learning. Read more at collaborationsdigitalandotherwise.weebly.com/

Have you heard the news? I am so excited to share a new, totally free set of resources from Apple Education. Today Apple Education released four books of lesson ideas and one teacher guide to spotlight the ways Everyone Can Create.

At a special event held earlier this year, Apple Education announced a new initiative called Everyone Can Create. In addition to promoting the power of creation in the classroom, they’ve designed a powerful set of resources for educators. And they are completely free!

In my book, Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom, I discuss the importance of empowering students as creators. I love how this new free resource from Apple Education focuses on the task – the why behind the use of digital tools in the classroom. When you combine the powerful creation tools from Apple with thoughtful task development, students can do amazing things!

[Class Tech Tips: Spark Video Activities for Google Classroom]

Everyone Can Create Teacher Resources

The Everyone Can Create resources are a series of iBooks from Apple Education. You can download them all for free and take a look at the activities, student work examples, and assessment items. This link will take you straight to iBooks which you can access from a Mac or iOS device.

There are four Everyone Can Create books and one teacher guide. This set of resources includes a book on Drawing, Photo, Music, and Video. I am going to take a deeper dive into each one with you in the next few weeks. Check back on the blog or sign up for my weekly newsletter to make sure you catch the profiles of each book. All five of the new books, including the teacher guide, are now available to download. This landing page will take you to an overview of all of the new books.

Lesson Ideas for Teachers

When I first took a peek at these iBooks, I was super impressed. Especially at the range of subject areas included in each resource. As a professional development facilitator, I travel to lots of schools and work with teachers in all content areas — from kindergarten to high school.

One thing I often hear from educators is a request for how to bring creative activities into every subject area. These iBooks have you covered! You’ll find activity ideas for math, science, social studies, English Language Arts, and more. It’s a robust collection ready for you to dive into right away.

Apple Distinguished Educator Perspectives

In 2013 I became an Apple Distinguished Educator – an experience that completely changed the trajectory of my life. I reached out to my network of fellow ADEs to find out how they felt about the new resources from Everyone Can Create. It was no surprise that they are just as excited as I am about what these resources mean for students and teachers around the world.

Problem-Solving through Creativity

Ben Mountz is an educator in Hawaii who you can follow along with on Twitter. He shared his perspective on how problem-solving and creativity are intertwined:

I think the most important thing to remember about creativity is that it doesn’t exist purely for its own sake. I mean it can – you can throw a gallon of orange paint against the wall and call it creative – but that’s when people question its purpose. Rather, I think creativity’s role is to help solve problems, improve life, or meet a need. Problem-solving doesn’t have to be this rigid, sterile process. Good solutions – in order to really resonate – usually require a great deal of creativity to formulate.

With this in mind, this is why I love the Everyone Can Create iBooks that Apple has produced. They promote creativity of all types, but in such a way that it is applicable and modifiable to a wide range of classrooms and curricular disciplines. The problems are still there to solve – but with Apple’s tools and ECC, we can now construct and communicate solutions which are not only creative but also compelling.

Creativity in the Content Areas

Cheryl Davis is an Educational Technology Specialist from California who shares lots of tips on Twitter too. She is excited about the content learning connections that Everyone Can Create offers students:

I am thrilled to see this deep dive that integrates creativity into content learning. As teachers, we want to reach all students, and the inclusion of drawing, music, photo, and video into the traditional academic content areas is a recipe for that success. The Everyone Can Create Teacher Guide sparks a lot of ideas! We broaden our students’ perspectives and experiences by helping them to communicate and reflect on their learning through the creative arts.

Learning through Creating

Kelly Croy is an educator in Ohio and the host of the Wired Educator podcast, a fantastic resource for anyone interested in education. Kelly shared his thoughts on how students learn best when they create a product that demonstrates their understanding:

Apple makes the most engaging and useful educational tools for students and educators. Now with the Everyone Can Create Curriculum, with five books, including Everyone Can Create: 1) Photos, 2) Video, 3) Music, 4) Drawing, and 5) an awesome Teacher’s Guide, educators have the skill-building lessons, examples, and steps they need to help everyone learn. I love how the Apple Pencil is used in these lessons.

As an educator and a parent, I know the best learning is when students are creating. We should be using our devices to create far more than they are used for consumption. Whether you’re talking Depth of Knowledge 4, Rigor and Relevance, synthesizing learning, or SAMR, what you are really talking about is creating. Even better it’s fun!

Get started with the new Everyone Can Create resources by heading over to this special landing page. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, Speaker, and Curriculum & EdTech Consultant. She is the author of Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and #FormativeTech (Corwin). Visit Monica's site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

Note: This is another cross-post from my other blog - "Eric the Rad" - where I share some thoughts on life from a nerd's point of view. This one deals with finding balance between technology, work, and life. As educators this is a critical issue for so many of us, so I felt it would be valuable to share here as well.

Back when I was in high school I was the editor for our school yearbook. I learned loads of publishing skills including developing photos in a dark room (with actual chemicals, as this was way before anything digital), writing corny captions, and designing creative layouts.

As part of making layouts, I learned the term "full bleed". This is when you take a photo, or some text, or any design element and run it right up to, or even over, the edge of the page. Normally you would have a margin around each page, but with full bleed you have a picture that breaks out of the traditional constraints and extends off the edge.

For high school yearbooks, full bleed is a good thing. For your life, it is not...

Far too often in my life I have been existing in a state of full bleed. Filling every square inch of my time, pushing myself to the edge, living without margins. Fully bleeding myself out.

For me one of the greatest reasons for this is technology. Now don't get me wrong, I love technology and it can certainly be a force for good, as it has often been in my life. Technology has allowed me to make amazing friends from around the world, improve education for children, and have a rewarding career.

• There will always be another email to read or write.
• There is always one more blog post or website or YouTube video to explore.
• The Twitter stream is actually an unending river.
• Facebook has no bottom. You can scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll forever and you will never reach the end.

[Video Dubbing Learning Activities for Students]

And it is all very justifiable.

• Retweeting a great resource from an edtech friend.
• Staying up until 1 AM writing a new blog post on a creative way to use a Google tool.
• Working late to record a webinar to teach others.
• Squeezing in time to stay up to date on the latest and greatest tech tools through podcasts or Facebook groups or RSS feeds.

Unfortunately our culture rewards full bleed. We wear bags under our eyes like a badge of honor, and take pride in how few hours of sleep we can get by on.

But we need margin in our lives. We need time that is not committed.

Margin is there for our safety. Think of the guardrail along the side of a twisting mountain road. It provides a space between you and a hundred foot plummet. There is no actual danger at the guardrail. The danger is another six feet away. The margin is there for when, not if, there is an accident, so there will be room to swerve and adjust and recover.

In the same way, life will go wrong. Maybe an unexpected illness, or loss of a job, or end of a marriage, or passing of a loved one. We need margin in our lives to see the warning signs, to have time to make changes, to avoid making things even worse.

But margins are not just about avoiding the bad. Margins are where real life can happen. In a book we use the margins to jot down notes about what we have learned, how we have been inspired, and what we want to explore. The same can be true in life.

• Life happens in the margins.
• Life happens when we take the time to have a meal with a friend.
• Life happens when we turn off our phone and look someone in the eyes and actually listen to what they are saying.
• Life happens when we walk away from the computer and take a walk through the woods.
• Life happens when we intentionally choose to do nothing. To give ourselves the gift of no agenda. To stop. To be present. To play. To simply live in the moment. To see the wonders all around us that are so easy to miss.

I don't share these thoughts as someone who has this figured out. I share this as the guilty party. Far too often I have lived in full bleed, with no margin in my life.

But I am trying to change.

You may have noticed my production of technology resources has slowed quite a bit. I have not blogged as frequently or made as many videos or shared as many tweets. I am still doing these things, but not as much. I am trying to find margin.

I have been catching up with old friends. I have been playing with my grandson. I have been questing in World of Warcraft with my daughter and son-in-law. I have been weeding and painting and cleaning. I have been reading books and going for walks and listening to music.

And I encourage you to do the same. When you work, work well. But know when to stop, to play, to live.

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

Before every major assessment I like to facilitate review activities in class. That being said, I can only handle the Kahoot theme song so much, play so many games of "Chemistry Jeopardy", or figure out another variation of Periodic Table Battleship to satisfy review of the whatever skills we are learning that topic.

Not that there is anything wrong with the above games, or the myriad of variations. Indeed, if I played Kahoot everyday my students would be STOKED!

However, the above review games, in my mind, always fall short in one area: student creation/invention.

This is where Google Forms is a powerful tool! During the past unit on Formula Analysis, distributed a different problem to each team of students.

I then asked each of students to input their solution AND a Youtube video of them solving their problem on a whiteboard into a Google Form.

[8 Awesome Inquiry Lesson Cycles!]

Although not as superficially engaging as Kahoot, watching students invent videos to explain their problems, and negotiate not only the problem, but also how to teach it, was incredibly inspiring, and IMO, much more engaging from an outside perspective.

Although this post is represents an extremely simple application of Google Forms, one I'm sure many of you have already done before or experimented with in the past, the power of immediately sharing the output formula with students, containing live links to the videos THEY created, was worth sharing.

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.