Repetitio est mater studiorum.

Or to say it another way, repetition is the mother of learning.

And while repetition sometimes gets a bad rap (as in “drill and kill”), properly utilized, repetition can help cement foundational concepts and allow students to advance to more deeper and nuanced forms of learning.

The learning platform I Know It provides a wide range of activities and exercises for K-5 math and English language arts practice, as well as progress reports for educators and parents and gamified feedback for students.

What is I Know It?

I Know It is a math and English language arts practice site that provides extensive, individualized exercises for students in grades K-5.

The platform includes some of the most engaging features of gamification, such as congratulatory graphics and animations, sound effects, awards, and badges. I think it strikes an excellent balance between fully gamified interactives on one hand and dry data-driven instruction on the other.

I Know It goes beyond simple practice modules by aligning the majority of its exercises with Common Core Standards or selected state standards. Plus, its student-friendly features will encourage timely assignment completion as well as exploration of additional, unassigned problem sets.

How Does I Know It Work?

I Know It makes it easy for educators to sign up for its generous free trial. Simply provide your name, school name, phone number, and email and you’re ready to explore the site. Once signed in, teachers can set options for the following parameters:

• Standards (Common Core, Texas or Florida)
• Hints (none, three or unlimited)
• Animations (on/off)
• Students may explore on their own (yes/no)
• Questions may be read aloud (on/off)
• Progress report to parents via email (yes/no)

Given the level of control and optimization provided, I Know It has a remarkably clean interface with intuitive navigation. It’s also very easy to edit any of these parameters at any time later.

CREATING A CLASS

Create and name your class from the My Students tab. The easiest way to populate your online classes is to use the Rapid Roster feature, which accepts text input, or copy-and-pasted names from a text file, spreadsheet, or email. The system will then create the user names and passwords for you. These can be edited later if you wish. You can also print out a PDF with all student names and passwords.

GETTING TO KNOW THE EXERCISES

I Know It offers two categories of practice: math and English language arts. To start exploring practice sets, select a category and grade from the top menu or from the teacher dashboard. Now you’ll see the entire range of problems for that grade, with large bold print headings so you can easily find your preferred activities.

To get a quick view of a problem type, mouse over the description and an example will pop up. To try it yourself, click to open the problem. Your view will be identical to the student’s view, so you can see what happens following a correct answer or an incorrect answer.

Note the animation option toggle in the lower right corner. Students who prefer not to have graphic or animated feedback can adjust their own settings.

If you’d like to experience and test the platform exactly as a student would, sign in as a student in a separate browser. First add a student; e.g.; Test Student. Open a new browser (for example, use Edge if your teacher account is open in Chrome) and sign in as Test Student, logging in with user name, the class code and the password. A separate student email is not required.

ASSIGNING EXERCISES

To assign activities from the teacher dashboard, select grade and subject (math or ELA), then select the desired exercise. The Assign Lesson window gives you multiple options for the assignment, including number of questions (1-80), which students to assign, display options, auto reassign, and several others.

What Are the Best I Know It Features?

LESSON DIFFERENTIATION

One of most useful features built into the I Know It platform is the ease with which teachers can differentiate lessons. This can be accomplished in two ways:

1. Assigning a lesson of a lower or higher grade level to individual students.
   Instead of assigning fourth grade math sets to Jane Doe, you can assign second grade problem sets, since she's currently working at that level. You can then quickly assign grade-level work to the rest of the students if desired. Importantly, there will not be a grade level displayed on assignments.
   
2. Setting the "ability level" to a lower or higher grade.
   The "ability level" is an optional feature that, if set, will guide the level of exploration exercises offered to a student. These are the optional activities displayed underneath the student's assigned work.

PROGRESS TRACKING AND REPORTING

Student progress tracking allows teachers to see overviews of a class or student, or drill down into details if desired. "Recent Activity" lists students, lessons worked on, and scores, with a link to a detailed view for each student. Here teachers can view all of a student's questions and answers as well as time spent on tasks.

Teachers may also export a printable PDF progress report for selected intervals, or view awards won by students for completing lessons. Weekly progress reports will be emailed to parents if enabled in Settings.

BUILT-IN ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS

Each activity window sports a sound icon in the top left corner, allowing questions to be read aloud. Incorrect answers yield explanations clarifying the correct answer and offering the chance to view the question and answer again.

Does The Robot Have A Name And Why Is It So Much Fun?

Maybe it's just the fifth grader in me, but I love the animated robot character that responds to answers (if animations are permitted in settings). The variety of playful animations for correct answers—all with apt and amusing sound effects—include: blowing bubbles; barking dogs; flying birds; rain; rainbows; rocket ship taking off, circling the moon, parachuting back to Earth; juggling; a flower garden springing from the head; eating an apple that turns into a pie; and more.

My guess is that most kids will enjoy these animated rewards and hopefully, be more motivated to complete their work. Sadly, the riveting (and no doubt, riveted) robot is nameless.

How Much Does I Know It Cost?

I Know It offers three account types: Family, Single Teacher and School/District, with varying pricing and features. A 30-day free trial, with no credit card required, makes it straightforward to discover if the platform is right for your class.

The Family membership allows one parent and up to four children, using a single login, for $45 annually.

The Single Teacher account includes one teacher and 25 students (each of whom has an individual login) for $150 annually and the option to add additional student licenses at $7.50 each.

The District/School account provides additional benefits, such as a unlimited teacher accounts, a dedicated account manager, teacher training, phone tech support and others. The cost is per student and varies depending on the size of the school or district.

Teachers have always known their students aren’t all working at the same level. Yet for teachers to adjust lesson plans manually for each child seems a daunting task, given that there are only 24 hours in a day. Here’s where education technology tools really shine. Using online digital platforms that combine formative assessment, lesson plans, quizzes, progress tracking, and artificial intelligence, educators can easily adjust instruction for an entire classroom of kids at once.

The following websites for differentiated instruction offer a wide variety of methods to differentiate teaching and learning for any budget.

Top Free Sites for Differentiated Instruction

Readworks
An award-winning platform that provides free literacy resources for learners of any age. But “resources” does not do justice to ReadWork’s breadth of research-based, standards-aligned literacy content, which is buttressed by robust guidance for teachers. Create your free account and then explore features including lesson differentiation, assignments, assessment and progress monitoring. Integrates with Google classroom.

SplashLearn
A free-for-educators game-based platform teaching math and English, SplashLearn offers thousands of preK-5 curriculum-aligned English and math games, as well as differentiated practice goals, lesson plans and comprehensive progress reports. The website features a well-designed interface, allowing users to easily search for content by grade and topic. Compatible with most devices.

For the Teachers: Differentiated Reading Lessons
A step-by-step guide to creating differentiated reading lessons for students in grades 3-10 based on a selection of articles written at three levels of literacy. Detailed PDF lesson plans, ideas, and charts provide strong direction for implementation in the classroom. Suggestion: Ignore the balky heading links at the top of the article in favor of simply scrolling down the page.

Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples
After a brief discussion of differentiated instruction strategies, this article from HMH examines in detail 20 diverse ways teachers can differentiate instruction. With methods ranging from choice boards to tiered assignments to flipped classrooms, there’s something for every style of teaching.

Read Write Think Differentiating Instruction
Read Write Think has developed a comprehensive series of guides detailing strategies for differentiation in the classroom, from assessment to cooperative learning to the think-pair-share technique. Each guide includes the research basis for the strategy, how to implement it, and lesson plans. A must-have for your differentiated teaching.

Classtools.net
The brainchild of educator Russel Tarr, Classtools.net allows teachers to create games, quizzes, activities, and diagrams for creative differentiated learning. Don’t be fooled by Classtools.net’s simple layout -- this site is a powerhouse of free, fun, and easy-to-use tools for teaching and learning, many of which are not found elsewhere. Try the Tarsia Puzzle Generator, Dice Roller, or Turbo Timeline Generator. Don’t worry: “Fling the Teacher” is all in good fun.

Breaking News English
A remarkable free site that transforms current events into rich classroom lessons for learners of any ability. Each news article is written at four different reading levels and accompanied by online grammar, spelling, and vocabulary activities as well as printable worksheets. Students can also listen to audio at five speeds for each article. Ideal for ELL students or simply differentiating English lessons.

Rewordify.com
Very cool free site that “rewordifies” by simplifying difficult text, from classic literature (Lewis Carroll, William Shakespeare, Harriet Beecher Stowe, e.g.) to historical documents and modern internet articles. Users can upload their own text or URL, or browse existing content. Be sure to check out the printable vocabulary exercises and quizzes, and the Educator Central department, which allows teachers to add student accounts and track progress.

Top Freemeum Sites for Differentiated Instruction

NoRedInk
An ELA platform designed to build writing and critical thinking skills, NoRedInk allows teachers to build engaging personalized exercises, scaffolded writing activities, and standards-aligned assignments. The free version includes a teacher dashboard, text-to-speech function for students, and limited scalable lessons and activities. The premium account allows for thousands of skill practice activities, writing prompts, and hundreds of guided draft prompts.

CommonLit
A research-backed, tiered program from the non-profit organization CommonLit that provides reading lessons and assessments for students in grades 3-12. The robust free account option offers the entire digital library of books as well as the CommonLit 360 curriculum for educators, who must sign up with a school email account. Teachers can differentiate lessons by text selection, annotation and/or by varying assessments. Three other packages designed for entire schools add rostering integrations, professional development and other features.

Quill
The not-for-profit Quill is dedicated to providing free tools to help students improve their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Start with the diagnostic tests to assess your students’ learning. A strong set of tutorials will guide teachers and students in making the most of Quill.

Arcademics
K-8 game-based learning across a wide range of subjects. The educational portal allows teachers to track and monitor students, generate detailed reports, and assess student learning.

ClassroomQ
This easy-to-use, innovative platform acts as a digital hand-raising device, making it easy for kids to ask for help and for teachers to provide it in a timely fashion.

Pear Deck
A Google Slides add-on that allows educators to create quizzes, slides, and presentations with their own content or using templates. Students respond via their mobile devices; teachers can then assess student understanding in real time.

Actively Learn
Educators can make any reading material their own by adding questions and annotation. The “Extra Help” features supports differentiated learning by offering explanatory text when needed. Integrates with Google Classroom and Canvas.

Top Premium Sites for Differentiated Instruction

Membean
A popular digital vocabulary teaching tool that includes built-in differentiation, Membeam takes an uncommon approach to vocabulary memorization, emphasizing practice via memory retrieval rather than memory encoding. In addition, Membeam focuses on spaced practice (in contrast to “cramming”) as well as promoting higher-order thinking. Pricing ranges from $6-$20 per student, depending on the number of students. Free trials are available.

Renzulli Learning
Founded by education researchers, Renzulli Learning is a learning system that differentiates instruction for any student through careful assessment of student learning style, preferences, and creativity. Integrates with Clever, ClassLink, and other SSO providers. A generous 90-day free trial makes it easy to try it yourself.

IXL
A popular site for English language arts, science, social studies, and Spanish that allows student progress tracking with detailed reporting. Educators can monitor areas in which students struggle, and then adjust instruction accordingly.

Buncee
A blended interactive learning tool for creating shareable presentations or digital stories, Buncee includes an extensive multimedia library to enrich your slideshows. Teachers can also flip a classroom by assigning quizzes, plus track and monitor students. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

Otus
A one-to-one learning management solution and mobile learning environment through which educators can differentiate instruction based on detailed real-time analytics.

Parlay
Teachers can use Parlay to build a classroom discussion on any topic. Browse through a robust library of discussion prompts (with resources), facilitate online round tables, or create a live verbal round table. Use the built-in tools to provide feedback and assess student progress. Free trial for teachers.

Socrates
A standards-aligned, game-based learning system dedicated to differentiated learning that automatically adjusts content to student needs.

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Crafting full curriculums and lesson plans can be a time-consuming process for many teachers, especially those who teach multiple classes with different subjects. Educators at Dickinson ISD in Texas have come up with an elegant solution to this challenge by creating “bundles,” or self-contained online teaching templates that can be altered to fit any lesson plan, curriculum, or educational environment as a teacher sees fit.

“The bundles will give the teachers everything they need through days one to five,” says Deanna Williams, Coordinator of Digital Learning & Instructional Material for the district. “They can use the course as is or that can select pieces of what is available a la carte.”

To start the bundle process, teachers first upload and assign their documents into Schoology, through which these are turned into digital materials so then can be assigned. The now-bundled curriculum is divided over days that a teacher can use to map what they want to teach in a manner that best suits their classroom environment.

“I’ve been working mainly with the reading ELA curriculum specialist. She would give me the materials that go into a planning document,” says Williams. “Now it’s streamlined to where she can submit a Google Doc and I basically know what she needs. I will take her information and create a slide deck from it.”

Bundles are customizable. “When teachers use the templates I create, they can alter the text, the colors, the wording, to better suit the lesson plan they have in mind,” says Williams.

Making Teaching More Straightforward 

The bundles show how a curriculum can be condensed and simplified for teachers. While this has obvious benefits for teachers well into their tenures, it can also be beneficial for those who are just starting out to make the teaching experience more palatable.

“One teacher went from her original slide deck, which I think was 41 slides that she assigned to over 100 students, to just 14 slides,” says Williams. “And so it made it a lot easier for her. She was so excited to have [her curriculum] honed down.”

While it may appear that these bundles take away some of the agency teachers enjoy when creating lesson plans, Williams explains that after adjusting to the system, many teachers find that the support they have and the time they save are invaluable.

“Teachers were apprehensive at first,” recalls Williams. “We presented [the system] as ‘Enjoy your Christmas break, and when you come back, here’s your bundle.’ So when they came back, everything was done for them. They assign it and during a curriculum preview day, we gave them the material and let them dig into it. I also provide support and tell them that if they are leery about technology or if they are not comfortable with it, I will come and support you.”

How Bundles Get Students Excited to Learn 

Bundles help teachers organize their lessons how they see fit, but what about the benefit for students? So far, bundles have kept students engaged in what they are learning, says Williams.

“The students were so excited,” she says. “Teachers and coaches tell me that their kids come in and ask what tomorrow will be like. They get so excited.”

Having the same curriculums and lesson plans repeated over and over can become monotonous for both teachers and students. These bundles allow teachers to add more personality to their lessons, giving students more to look forward to every day.

 Some of the Tools Williams Uses: 

• Schoology
• Canva
• Quizizz
• Google Suite
• Edgenuity
• iReady

Related articles:

• Best Practices for Launching a Digital Curriculum at Scale
• Defining A Digital Curriculum

Creating and launching a digital curriculum is a significant undertaking at any level. Multiply that effort by a massive student base with a broad spectrum of learners, and finding new strategies to bring that implementation to scale are a must.

Kara Thorstenson, Director of Digital Learning and Libraries for Chicago Public Schools, discusses the district’s impressive feat of launching a digital curriculum. For her part in that effort, she was recognized by Tech & Learning with an Innovative Leader Award during the Midwest Regional Leadership Summit.

Launching A Digital Curriculum: The Bigger the District, the Bigger the Challenges 

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the fourth largest school district in the U.S, with more than 323,000 students, spread across 634 schools, encompassing 24.7% English language learners and 16.1% diverse learners. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the district did not have a formal districtwide 1-to-1 device plan. The shift to remote learning required a rush to distribute tech to cover students, with 1-to-1 remaining the CPS norm since. But a shift to digital learning required more than tablets-in-hand, and that change started from the top down.

“Delivering professional learning at scale has been a huge challenge for a district of our size,” says Thorstenson. “We started off with an enormous amount of edtech/curriculum vendor-developed and delivered professional learning, with a gradual handover to our internal teams (exclusively by SY25). Moving into a virtual environment during COVID-19 allowed us to think more flexibly and creatively, offering high-quality PL to more educators than ever.”

The next hurdle was to walk back a history of school-by-school autonomy to ensure everyone was on the same page.

“After decades of decentralized purchasing for curriculum and no district- or state-mandated curricula, schools and individual teachers were teaching with learning materials with a lot of variability in terms of quality and standards-alignment,” says Thorstenson.

A visionary board and proactive senior leadership ensured funding for the ambitious project was covered. Finding the right curricula for CPS, however, was key.

“Evaluating the state of home-grown and purchased (out of the box) curricula adopted by other large districts, we discovered most resources did not directly address the needs of urban students of color, and were not relevant to the lived experiences of CPS students,” says Thorstenson. “Modifying and adapting licensed content to meet the district’s definition of high-quality curriculum ensured resources for teachers and students were designed with Universal Design for Learning principles in mind, including built-in support for English language and diverse learners.”

Why Go Digital? 

Considering the immensity of the task, one wonders why push for full digital while still recovering from pandemic-era challenges?

“Prior to developing our curriculum, district leaders traveled around the country to learn from other large districts to hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls that they had encountered in tackling similar projects,” says Thorstenson. “We learned that districts who had purchased countless textbooks or ‘published’ their own content in print were then bound to disseminate those materials into perpetuity. Development of physical materials also significantly slowed the process.”

At the time, CPS learned that approximately 50% of district teachers had no material available to them in the subject that they taught. This created both an opportunity and a sense of urgency to develop and deliver Skyline, its unique self-developed curriculum, to schools.

“Because Skyline was developed digitally, we were able to distribute it universally needing only sufficient bandwidth and appropriate content licenses,” she says. “We can continually update it to accommodate changes big and small, from the name of Chicago’s mayor to editing entire units if a different text is selected or a new state mandated learning topic is required.”

3 Key Steps When Launching a Digital Curriculum 

1. Do Your Research. Talk to similar districts and attend conferences to interact with curricular products, both print and digital.
2. Relationships Are Key. Custom development of curricular content and digital resources require solid connections with external partners.
3. Choose Wisely. Ask the stakeholders what they need. Test scores and data tell a story, but that story is incomplete without ensuring the needs of teachers and students are put at the forefront of any priority project.

The Buy-In Roadshow 

Launching any big project requires all stakeholders to be on board.

“Our Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Digital Learning traveled around the district presenting the project to principals and our 17 network chiefs to gather input,” Thorstenson says. “We leveraged a huge group of teachers called the Curriculum Collaborative to review curriculum against a rubric and make suggestions for edits then used by vendor partners developing the curriculum.”

The district established a clear expectation that schools needed to demonstrate quality (defined by Ed Reports) in all content areas. Skyline was not mandatory, but being pre-approved and developed specifically for CPS on the central district budget’s dime offered a bonus of being a “free” option tailored to local students.

“We are really proud to be doing curriculum development in partnership with local Chicago museums and other cultural institutions,” Thorstenson says. “We provided schools with thousands of picture books, novels, science kits, and more to ensure that students are engaged in hands-on learning while learning from a digital curriculum. We have worked hard to ensure Skyline is holistic and lots of learning takes place away from screens/computers, even as materials are accessible digitally.”

Digital Readiness Guides and Other Roll Out Strategies 

Digital readiness guides function as a checklist to ensure schools have the appropriate infrastructure, devices, and peripherals to ensure a successful implementation of a digital curriculum.

“We did not have to be 100% ready in order to leverage the Skyline learning materials,” says Thorstenson. “Digital readiness guidance acts as a roadmap in order to best budget and plan for establishing the best possible environment for digital learning over the course of years/budget cycles.”

The CPS Office of Teaching & Learning increased staff, hiring grade level-specific professional learning specialists to train teachers in Skyline. External partners helped develop the structures necessary to scale up for district-wide delivery.

“For the technical platforms, we leveraged asynchronous professional learning and microcredentials to award digital badges to teachers, school leaders and district staff who complete the appropriate technical professional learning modules,” says Thorstenson. “These are continually updated so that they keep up with new development and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the recommended workflows for planning, teaching, and delivering and scoring assessments.”

• Innovative Leader Award
• Defining a Digital Curriculum

Officially adopted in 1988, Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th through October 15th and marks the contributions of Hispanic Americans and Latinos to American life. This designation by President Ronald Reagan expanded an earlier one-week commemoration signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.

September 15 was chosen to kick off the celebration because it marks the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico, and Chile also have their independence days around this time, on September 16 and September18, respectively.

The largest minority population in the nation, Hispanics and Latinos have strongly influenced U.S. culture since before its founding. These top free lessons and activities can help all students explore the impact and achievements of Americans with Hispanic and Latino ancestry.

Best Free Hispanic Heritage Month Lessons and Activities

The 20 greatest Hispanic athletes of all time
You might already know that prizefighter Oscar De La Hoya and Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez are Mexican-American. But did you know that NBA star Carmelo Anthony and Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte also are of Hispanic origin? This list of great Hispanic athletes offers a few surprises (Ted Williams, for example) while demonstrating the influence that Hispanic Americans have had on sporting culture.

Poets.org: Lesson Plans Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Fine selection of poems, essays, audio, and videos in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Included are such well-known poets as Pablo Neruda, Virgil Suárez, and Elizabeth Acevedo, plus many other prize-winning writers. An especially nice touch is that many poems feature commentary from the author about their frame of mind when writing the poem. After perusing the written works, audio, and video, check out the more than two dozen lesson plans, which offer classroom exercises, discussion questions, and lesson extensions tailored to grade levels.

24 Influential Hispanic Americans Who Have Made History
Biography.com highlights the contributions of Hispanic Americans who have excelled in politics, science, music, sports, the arts, and more. From the newly named Pope Leo XIV to the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, this list covers a wide range of Hispanics who have led fascinating and sometimes controversial lives.

The Aspirations of Sonia Sotomayor
A downloadable PDF that explores the life and aspirations of the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. Standards-aligned and aimed at grades four and five, the worksheet includes questions and an answer key and may be completed in a single class period.

American Masters: Ynés Mexía: Mexican-American Botanist and Adventurer
This 10-minute video delves into the life of Mexican American Ynés Mexía, an accomplished botanist who did not begin her adventures with plants until her sixth decade. Despite her late start, she discovered more than 500 new plant species—50 of which were named after her. A printable transcript is included.

What’s the Difference Between Hispanic and Latino?
Language can be clarifying or confusing. The terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx may be used interchangeably but have different meanings. Learn the differences in this brief, clarifying article from Encyclopedia Britannica.

NPR Hispanic Heritage Month
Did you know there was a Spanish language version of the Hollywood classic Dracula? This wide-ranging series of radio segments/articles from National Public Radio looks at the culture and sometimes-arduous history of Latino and Hispanic peoples in America. Topics include music, literature, filmmaking, stories from the border, and much more. Listen to the audio or read the transcript.

National Museum of the American Latino
¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States is a fine multimedia examination of Latino history in the U.S., featuring stories of immigration, Latino influence on American culture, and the tricky business of Latino identity. Each section is accompanied by videos and enhanced through digital renderings of relevant exhibits, from Wars of Expansion to Shaping the Nation.

Estoy Aquí: Music of the Chicano Movement
This excellent 12-part lesson from the Smithsonian Institution explores the Chicano movement—its history, causes, leaders, and legacies—through the lens of music and culture. Included are teachers’ guides, slideshows, art, music, and bibliography.

Caribbean, Iberian, and Latin American Studies
Perhaps the largest collection of primary source documents about Hispanics across the globe is curated by the Library of Congress. On this site you’ll find a wealth of digitized documents, images, audio, video, and webcasts focused on Hispanic heritage in the U.S. and abroad. To narrow the field, select Latinx Studies: Library of Congress Resources. Ideal for advanced students, who will gain valuable research experience as well as knowledge of Hispanic and Latino culture.

Read Aloud Hispanic Heritage Videos
Ideal for younger learners, but also for anyone who needs language practice, these charming YouTube videos feature popular children’s stories, fables, and books read aloud in English and Spanish. For tips on accessing YouTube at your school, check out 6 Ways To Access YouTube Videos Even If They're Blocked at School.

• Pollito Tito - Chicken Little in Spanish with English subtitles
• Round Is A Tortilla - Kids Books Read Aloud
• Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa read-aloud
• What Can You Do With a Paleta?
• Mango, Abuela, and Me
• Scholastic's Hi! Fly Guy (Español)
• Dragones y tacos por Adam Rubin read-aloud (Español)

Read Write Think Hispanic Heritage Month Lesson Plans
These standards-aligned Hispanic heritage lessons for grades 3-5, 6-8, and 8-12 provide step-by-step instructions as well as printouts, templates, and related resources/activities.

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“Learning loss” has been a prevalent term since 2021, but educators everywhere are sensitive to the insinuation of lost learning since everyone intentionally designs learning in various ways to meet learners' needs. 

Perhaps learning loss isn’t what students experienced during these past few years but rather a mastery gap. Mastery is measured by teacher observation and assessments of varying types. Each of these mechanisms to measure mastery was severely disrupted; therefore, it is a fair assumption that many students' mastery of skills and concepts wasn’t entirely determined. 

Mastery, a term introduced to the field in the mid-1960s by Benjamin Bloom (Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy: An Update), requires students to be exposed to content more than once to have mastery. In the 60s, Jerome Bruner introduced the concept of a spiraling curriculum, suggesting that students should be exposed to content year after year, enabling them to develop more complex skills. 

Measuring Mastery 

So, what does this idea mean for the 2022-23 school year? It means grade level or content area teams for the secondary need to be diligent in working together to assess where students are concerning standards and mastery. Team meetings and regular data meetings will be especially important this year to identify which students may be experiencing a mastery gap and determine whether the student needs an intervention. 

Where we typically see the MTSS framework vibrant in elementary schools, this year all grade spans will need to pay close attention to the MTSS framework and utilize various interventions and instructional strategies. Sounds like common sense? Of course, it does, but for many schools, this will only be the second year of assessments and the second year of in-person teaching, and some skills taught to a second-grade student in 2020 will be addressed again in fourth grade, but the student may not have mastered those skills due to the pandemic. 

Having a keen eye on data, especially in relation to instructional standards and that spiraling curriculum, will help teachers know what is needed for students on a week-by-week basis. And, if you have benchmark assessment systems, these systems will be critical to know exactly where students are in relation to standards and mastery. If you don’t have a benchmark system, develop an internal assessment system to measure mastery of standards and growth over time.

A Coordinated Approach 

To help close the mastery gap, there are a few practices to consider. 

• If the focus for teachers is data, teaming, and intervention, then that should also be the focus of professional learning. 
• Allow teachers the opportunity to work with instructional coaches in their building rather than pull them out of the building for professional learning. 
• Bring in data scientists or add the position if you can, using ESSR funds to aid teachers in running and reviewing reports. 
• Make sure someone can be dedicated to MTSS and keep up with where individual students are in the framework. 
• Additionally, coordinate assessment schedules with intention and make sure disruptions don’t frequently happen with the assessment schedule. 
• After assessments occur, try to expedite the reports back to teachers to allow plenty of time for remediation, reteaching, or interventions. 
• Finally, help teachers develop practices for teaming in order to collaborate on data review, lesson development, and instructional strategies. 
• Include the MTSS and data team members in grade or content level meetings to ensure all are on the same page in attending to the mastery gap. 

These practices are most likely in place in schools, but increasing the intentionality and continuity will undoubtedly impact overall student success.  

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Tech & Learning magazine has named the winners of the Awards of Excellence: Best of 2021 contest, which recognizes educational technology that exceptionally supported teachers and students last year. 

The contest focused on outstanding products that supported education this past year no matter the learning environment, whether face-to-face, remote, or anything in between. Eligible products included hardware, software, curriculum, and more, all divided by grade levels to make it easier to find the solutions you need. 

Each nominee answered the following questions: What specific problem does this product solve? How did your product exceptionally support teaching and learning in 2021? How does your product address the challenges facing education today?

Tech & Learning's panel of educators evaluated the nominations based on a set of criteria that included: the product’s ability to support different learning environments and student needs; value; versatility; and ease of use. 

“2021 was another challenging year for schools, so it was inspiring to see both educators and the industry continue to come up with new solutions to support teaching and learning,” says Tech & Learning Content Director Christine Weiser. “Our judges were impressed with the creativity presented by our Best of 2021 nominees, many of whom found new and innovative ways to use technology to ensure students continue to get an equitable education in any learning environment.” 

The complete listings will be featured in the February 2022 issue of Tech & Learning magazine. Please join us in congratulating the following winners of the Awards of Excellence: Best of 2021. 

PRIMARY WINNERS

SECONDARY WINNERS

HIGHER ED WINNERS

We have heard and used the phrase "digital curriculum" almost daily in education since March 2020. Sometimes because of need, and sometimes just because it makes the work sound future-ready. However, as a district leader, I always want to ensure that when our educators provide a digital curriculum or move to more online resources, it fits the students' needs and is rooted in best practice. Digital curriculum is a lot of things, but what it has yet to deliver is a universal understanding. 

I believe a digital curriculum is a customizable accumulation of resources aligned to learning criteria and expectations. Digital resources present themselves in a variety of formats, such as:

• Text
• Video
• Images
• Audio
• Interactive media

A key to the digital curriculum is that the resources are also available to students outside the classroom. Teachers use digital resources to individualize and personalize student learning experiences. I have observed excellent teachers creating digital documents, ebooks, interactive lessons, and video tutorials to extend learning and add relevance to lessons. A textbook can only get you so far and is a static resource, outdated before it even gets into student's hands. Digital active curriculum assists students to dive much deeper into understanding and in transferring learning.

Learning Evolution Boost 

Classrooms have evolved steadily over the last 15 years as I developed as a school and district leader. However, in the past 24 months, the rate of that evolution has accelerated, and because of this, digital curricula and digital tools have gained prominence. However, these are not staples in every classroom yet, but with educators seeing the benefits that last two years, the digital curriculum is starting to have more foothold in learning communities.

A digital curriculum can replace traditional curriculum, such as textbooks and, in some cases, the conventional classroom environment. Some examples of a digital curriculum include:

• Online courses
• Electronic textbooks
• Digital and online programs

I have observed online courses ranging from a single class to a full K-12 course load to a student's vocational program. 

A classroom design for a digital curriculum allows for a blended learning environment in a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or an entirely online learning environment. In environments where the digital curriculum is expanding, teachers deliver assignments and curriculum materials via an online learning management system (LMS). Electronic textbooks have enabled teachers to replace the heavy books used previously. Today's electronic textbooks are web-based and can quickly open on a tablet, smartphone, laptop, or computer.

Digital and online curriculum programs are widely used in schools today. Some examples include Newsela, Khan Academy, and ST Math. These programs are designed to teach or reinforce curriculum standards using gamification and other engaging characteristics. A digital curriculum may reinforce math or reading standards using video lessons and practice activities, for example. In addition, personalized learning programs with built-in assessments, such as adaptive computer assessments, make it possible for teachers to individualize instruction to meet the unique needs of each student.

One of the significant advantages of a digital curriculum is the simplicity of sharing resources. It is far easier for teachers to give feedback on their assignments, co-author and co-teach assignments, and even pool their resources into one accessible place. This is a transformation of the way teaching works typically with paper, and one that should lead to more collaboration among teachers at your school.

Adopting a Digital Curriculum 

I urge education leaders to begin to move to using more digital curricula; however, because digital texts require teachers to alter what they normally do in their classes, it is recommended to have a step-by-step rollout instead of throwing away every textbook and forcing teachers to rely exclusively on the digital format. 

It's not obvious to every teacher why going digital is the right move for the classroom. Teachers will be much more successful in making the switch if they can experiment using shorter texts before diving into a full-length novel or civics textbook.

Digital content that engages students must be considered a priority since a significant amount of available content is shallow and dependent on entertaining students, not engaging them. Effective digital transitions are thoughtfully planned, executed, and measured. Teachers will embrace a change when they believe it adds value.

Students also need some time to adapt to reading or solving complex problems on a screen. A Facebook or Instagram feed is a lot different than the focused reading of a textbook, as many students have discovered during this year's sudden plunge into remote learning. For some, making that attitudinal switch is much easier if they can gradually work up to it by starting with a few articles and then moving up to longer texts.

As you begin or continue the transformation to digital curriculum, always remember, “Good instruction trumps everything.” I have seen many great digital transitions get hindered when they only focus on devices. If you begin with the idea that good instruction drives meaningful change, then digital content will enhance learning. 

• How To Build a Digital Curriculum for a Remote District
• How to Create a Curriculum for Remote Learning

Tech & Learning is launching a new event series to address the age-old question: “Can the marriage of technology and curriculum be saved?” 

The new Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits will bring together instructional and technology district leaders in a relaxed virtual setting in which attendees can talk candidly about how collaboration between these departments is key to developing effective district strategic plans. 

Each Tech & Learning Leadership Summit focuses on the unique needs of specific regions to give attendees the valuable insight they need to develop action plans. 

What follows are the dates and regions for the 2021 Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits:

March 23: Texas - website

April 23: Mid-South - website

May 21: California- website

June 21: Georgia- website 

 “We’re excited about this new event series,” says Tech & Learning Content Director Christine Weiser. “We’ve learned this past year that a healthy collaboration between the instructional and technology departments continues to play a crucial role in implementing effective district initiatives. The focus of each Regional Summit will be on how these departments can use collaboration, communication, and leadership to guide these initiatives as districts plan for next year and beyond.” 

For more information and to apply to attend this invitation-only event, please visit the website for the region of your choosing. There is no charge to attend. 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: CTOs, CAOs, Instructional/Tech District Leaders

WHY TO ATTEND: 

• Collaborate with other technology and curriculum district leaders
• Share ideas and best practices
• Expand your PLN through this new community 
• Get the latest news about school funding in your region 
• Walk away with specific actions for your strategic planning 

COMING UP: 

SEPTEMBER 24: Midwest

OCTOBER 22: Northeast

NOVEMBER 12: Northwest

DECEMBER 3: Florida

For more information, contact Christine Weiser at Christine.Weiser@futurenet.com. 

We chat with Sian Leah Beilock, President of Barnard College, Columbia University, about revamping the curriculum for a fully remote fall.

“We made a big technology investment—our classrooms are now tech-enabled and we set up teaching studios for demonstrations and science labs," says Beilock. "We are really trying to think outside the box, not only with technology but how to engage students in remote learning through curriculum adjustments. As a cognitive scientist by training, it’s important to model that flexibility.”

Last fall, Barnard launched the Center for Engaged Pedagogy to support both faculty and students, and it has been critical for remote learning. Melanie Hibbert—Ed.D., Director of IMATS (Instructional Media and Technology Services) and the Sloate Media Center at Barnard College—has been instrumental in preparing faculty and overseeing the new teaching studios used for filming labs and interactive classrooms used for remote learning. IMATS is also assisting individual professors with their specific needs (e.g. a custom chemistry lab app around lab procedures) and helps instructors with Zoom and CourseWorks.

“One thing we know from research is that in remote settings, shorter, intensive courses can be better for learning," says Beilock. "The Center helped our faculty adjust and this fall about a third of our classes will be taught in half-semester blocks. They helped faculty think about content differently. It’s less about the nuts and bolts of Zoom and more about how do we deliver engaging content and think about academic excellence now.”

Content for the times

Content delivery philosophies weren’t the only adjustments made.

“As COVID-19 challenges continued, and the heightened awareness of anti-racism came about, we saw young people really involved in the movements—whether it was tutoring kids of frontline workers or taking part in marches," says Beilock. "We started thinking about how we could meet them where they were with a curriculum that was addressing the current times and helping them affect the change they wanted. It’s something inherent in Barnard, we’re of the city not in the city, the classroom is not just four walls anymore."

All first-year students are required to take Big Problems, Making Sense of 2020, a new remote course. Guest speakers will give presentations and then students will break out in small groups of 20 or less, which are led by specially trained upper class students and offer a chance for first-year students to interact with their older counterparts. The idea is for students to interrogate the current times through a variety of lenses.

This is yet another silver lining moment, with technology making this impactful course possible.

“Because it is distance learning, we can bring in really high-profile activists and medical practitioners from around the world and allow students to have contact with them," says Beilock. "They learn from their experiences and then bring that to their small discussion groups to absorb. It’s so popular we even have alumnae patching in to listen to the lectures, some will even be giving talks. It has enhanced our global Alumnae Circle program, which gives local access to students currently studying from their home communities.”

If you build it, they will record 

Two new spaces on Barnard’s campus within The Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning have been dedicated to the recording and delivery of lectures. This newly designed production studio features a light grid, audio booth, and green screen, and is open for reservations.

The set-up includes: two large monitors so you can see both Zoom participants and presentation content; camera/audio input, and a computer; a whiteboard camera system; a document camera; and professional studio light. Recent upgrades to classroom spaces allow for live-streaming, which will enable instructors to simultaneously work with students in-person and online.

The majority of larger classrooms have been upgraded to include wall-mounted instructor and audience facing pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras. The instructor-facing camera has presets so it can record an instructor at a podium, the instructor plus a whiteboard or blackboard, or a wide angle shot. These presets, as well as manual PTZ control, can be selected through the AV touch panel. In addition, these rooms have newly installed ceiling microphones for full room audio coverage.

Seminar rooms have also been upgraded to include a 120° camera that has voice tracking capabilities. These cameras will automatically focus on the speaker after a few seconds of speaking.

Camera angles can also be controlled by remote control or smartphone app, and include microphones with a 12-foot range.

IMATS collaborates with Barnard College Information Technology (BCIT) and Columbia University IT (CUIT) to support a wide range of software and apps. Canvas as a learning management system and Zoom are broadly used. Innovative third-party applications are being piloted and implemented into Canvas, such as Perusall, Hypothe.sis, and Padlet.

Pro tip

“For us, our faculty were so excited so we gave them the support and let them run," says Beilock. "That’s the crucial step. Engage the faculty and let them lead. They are the experts and they have so much to offer.”

Tech tools

• CAM530 12X PTZ camera USB, HDMI & RS232 
• SCT Wall/ceiling mount 
• Crestron OFE Crestron HDMI Extender in existing Extron MediaPort 
• Crestron Wall Plate DigitalMedia 8G+® Transmitter 200, White Textured 
• 1 Crestron 4K DigitalMedia 8G+® Receiver & Room Controller 1
• 1 OFE OFE Room PC- Zoom soft Codec in Podium
• Shure Ceiling Mic Array, Intellimix, White, 24in tile form factor
• AVer Cam530 and Vaddio Roboshot 12E
• Shure MXA910 Ceiling mics
• Logitech MeetUp
• Logitech Rally PTZ Camera
• Elmo MX-P2 document camera

As any educator knows, being prepared is critical, be it creating lesson plans, vetting resources, or even studying for tests. And that preparation extends to managing learning environments and ensuring instruction.

Miami-Dade County Schools is the nation’s fourth-largest district, serving an extremely diverse population of 348,000 learners and supporting more than 20,000 teachers. In 2012, the district passed a major referendum called “Digital Convergence” in an effort to provide more than 200,000 devices to teachers and students. 

With so many learners, educators, and devices, maintaining instruction during remote learning was an enormous challenge. 

In her presentation during Tech & Learning’s recent “Future-Proofing Your District” virtual conference, the district’s Chief Academic Officer Marie Izquierdo (@miamiCAO) shared how the district developed new teaching strategies in response to the crisis. 

Curate and Utilize Existing Assets 

Thanks to the Digital Convergence program, many teachers across the district had already developed best practices around certain tools and blended learning prior to the pandemic. The district goal was to maintain a “rigidly flexible” approach to the use of certain instructional edtech tools as it was not the time to force all teachers onto unknown platforms. 

One of the first things done to support continuity was to curate and evaluate any and all existing digital assets. Looking at software license usage and usefulness, tools were sorted based on value in asynchronous and synchronous environments. Tools that the district had invested in that were not showing high usage was a concern. Do you continue to pay for these tools if they aren’t being used? Or if you know these platforms are valuable for instruction, do you invest more time for training?

District leaders opted for the latter, dedicating two school days for more than 40 live and on-demand professional development webinars for teachers. Many of these training sessions were created in partnership with platform partners while others featured teachers who were already demonstrating optimal online instructional strategies. 

• What is Remote Learning?
• 5 Ways to Support Parents During Remote Learning

A Personalized Plan with Common Messaging 

Now that all staff were remote, a new challenge arose in terms of how to create consistent messaging to all 20,000+ staff in terms of instructional expectations and delivery. Leaders worked with those teachers in the field who showed some early successes to crowd-source a checklist for all staff, which was then shared via powerpoint presentation so that all staff got the same message.

As a result, they were able to publish a set of instructions and readiness checklists:

Checklists for teachers

• Setting up classes 
• Setting up online communication 
• Communicating effectively and consistently 

Checklists for administrators 

• Support the current Instructional Continuity Plan (ICP) 
• Make sure families complete mobile device surveys 
• Hold emergency faculty meetings
• Coordinate the distribution of devices to students  
• Support our most fragile learners (ELL, lower 25%, Low-SES, etc.) 
• Maintain consistent communication 

Building the Plane as You Fly It 

The district already had an ICP, but when the pandemic occurred, leaders realized that plan was only a stop-gap. As they gathered feedback from the first few weeks of remote learning, they knew they needed to pivot. On April 3, just three weeks after the shutdown, they published their ICP 2.0, a guide built for all involved parties to encourage best practices of remote learning.

As the increase of screen time at home became an issue, “Time on Task” cards were built in throughout the guide (see sample below). These cards provide parents, students, and teachers with an overview of expectations for content and instruction. Developing activities for mental wellness checks and curriculum are embedded throughout these task cards. 

The 4th-quarter curriculum was also compressed to make sure that certain key standards were covered during the time away from the classroom. 

Within the plan, three different methods for instructional delivery are outlined: 

1. Teacher-directed
2. Teacher-assigned
3. Hybrid

Building Instructional Continuity Plan Guides (ICPGs) at least two weeks ahead of time kept teachers in the loop as to where they should be heading while creating a space to adapt and adjust, depending on learner needs. 

“In many ways, we were building the plane as we fly it,” said Izquierdo.

Resources

• Miami-Dade Digital Convergence 
• Instructional Continuity Plan 
• ICP 2.0 
• Resources for educators, families, students 
• Virtual training for parents 

Educators know that basic math is a critical building block that students need—not only to understand how things work in the world, but also to master all other STEM subjects. Yet many kids don't make a connection between math and their daily lives, or may believe incorrectly that "I'm not good at math."

Accelerate Learning's new core mathematics program, STEMscopes™ Math, aims to make math relevant to young learners by revealing the wonder of math in the everyday world. The math curriculum will be available nationwide in June for grades 3-5.  

Aligned to the Common Core State Standards, STEMscopes Math combines digital and print components with hands-on kits to help teachers to create math learning experiences for students. The digital curriculum materials for students are also available in Spanish. 

Using the 5E plus Intervention and Acceleration lesson model, STEMscopes Math  provides interactive learning with the Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA) approach. The curriculum features inquiry-based math investigations, virtual manipulatives and interactive games, and encourages exploration with open-ended tasks. 

STEMscopes Math includes benchmark assessments for grades 3-5 to provide standards-based data and Quantile measures that track student progress and inform instruction. It features embedded strategies for diverse learners, including English language learners and students who need additional support.

Remote Learning in Action is a series of articles from attendees and speakers of Tech & Learning's events. Click here to learn more about these events and to apply to attend.

Where: Maine Township District 207, Park Ridge, Illinois

Who: Jill Geocaris, Innovative Adult Learning Coordinator

I have been working with the teachers in my district to try to find ways to engage students in remote learning. Our state (Illinois) has given guidance that does not allow students grades to be negatively impacted by remote learning so teachers need to find ways to engage students in learning for the sake of learning, not for the purpose of earning points toward a grade. This requires teachers to use differentiation strategies such as providing flexibility in choice and pace for their students.  

Here is an example of a remote learning lesson our World Cultures PLT created that is a great example of this. The teacher uses Loom to introduce the choice board to her students. The learning choices are connected to both content and social emotional learning as well as current events.   

In my role I have been trying support our teachers' transition to elearning through providing virtual support sessions. For the first two weeks I had an 8 am session in which teachers could log in virtually and share ideas with one another. Our staff has been developing both synchronous and asynchronous lessons for students, and since the district is 1:1 with chromebooks (we provided hotspots for students who needed them) our staff is able to use a wide variety of apps and platforms in these lessons.  

Here are some links to some other lessons that some of our staff members have created.

English Lesson

Biology Choice Board

Playlist Example

Orchestra Weekly Plan

Discovery Education today introduces Coding to U.S. educators. 

Coding is a complete digital service supporting coding education at the elementary and middle school levels.  Beginning today, all current users of Discovery Education Experience will receive free access to Coding through the remainder of the 2019-2020.

Coding teaches coding concepts like algorithms, sequences, and variables as well as decomposition, logical reasoning, and problem solving. Based in part on the Discovery Education Coding service used by teachers across the United Kingdom, the U.S. version of Coding features a wide array of block coding resources and features drag-and-drop ability to create and run a program.

Students using Coding also learn how web pages are designed, structured, and presented with HTML mark-up and CSS exercises. Coding helps students explore how real-life coding language works by building quizzes, drawing graphics, and running simulations in Python. 

Other features include:

• Built-in code validation and a “console” area help students identify any mistakes
• Extensive collection of teacher support resources, including videos and examples of what students need to achieve in each coding lesson
• Over 100 lesson plans

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Discovery Education is offering schools and school systems not currently using the company’s digital services free access to Discovery Education Experience. For more information, visit Discovery Education’s Virtual Learning resource website. 

For more information about Discovery Education’s digital resources and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com

Happy Numbers

Carefully scaffolded lessons build a strong math foundation

Pros: Scaffolding creates seamless connections from concrete models to the abstract.

Cons: Scores for growth and progress are shown, but it's missing student responses that could aid in identifying misconceptions.

Bottom Line: Depth of concepts covered and expertly paced lessons are sure to develop mathematical thinkers.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

K-12 publishing company, TCI, announced today free digital access to its platform for learning social studies and science to qualified schools and teachers until the end of the school year. 

Available on a digital platform, TCI’s programs allow teachers to deliver interactive lessons from any device – their laptop or tablet. 

The company’s elementary program, Social Studies Alive! teaches students about the world around them and how cultures were created through activities and lessons, while its middle school program, History Alive! provides multi-faceted social studies learning experience.

TCI lessons start with an Essential Question and incorporate graphic notetaking, groupwork, and step-by-step discovery. In TCI’s online social studies curriculum, high school students complete collaborative projects, writing assignments, and critical-thinking challenges as they explore topics such as geography, world history, American history and government, and economics. 

The company’s Bring Science Alive! programs for elementary and middle school students  introduce students to the power of gravity, how plants and animals can impact their environments and other big picture concepts. Students learn how to “do science," rather than memorize facts. Many of the integrated experiments and activities  can be implemented by students in a home-learning environment. 

TCI has also developed a resource page to help support teachers with free videos, guides and FAQs. For more information, visit https://www.teachtci.com/online-teaching-during-coronavirus-outbreak/.

Who: Kirsten Johnson, Director of Social Work Services, LCSW 

Where: Dover Area School District in Dover, PA 

When I was hired by Dover Area Schools for the 2017-2018 school year, I was given the freedom and support of the administration to implement a curriculum for social and emotional learning (SEL). While our schools have become adept at managing behavioral issues and PBIS systems, staff did not have a common vision of what SEL competency looked like or how to teach those skills the same way we teach academic skills. 

I was looking for a mechanism to get something into the hands of the teachers, so while they were learning what SEL competencies were, they would also have a tool to measure those competencies and apply it directly to teaching in the classroom. 

We chose DESSA. It is an easy-to-use, web-based tool that assesses SEL competence; specifically Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Decision Making. Teachers are asked to rate students three times each year. I see the assessment as a form of intervention for our teachers. While they are assessing, they are becoming attuned to what the competencies are and how to determine what additional instruction students need. DESSA provides a rating that is used to determine exactly which lessons students need to meet their SEL learning needs. 

The DESSA assessment allows us to target certain classrooms and specific skills—like how to broaden emotional vocabulary, understand the body cues to different emotions, or how to self-manage when students are having uncomfortable emotions. We also teach students how to feel empathy, interpret the feelings of other people, problem solving, and working as a team. The reason we selected DESSA is that it allowed us to target different classrooms and different student subsets in a way we had not been able to do before.

Increasing Growth in SEL Skills Development

Initially, we targeted grades K-2. We added third grade this year. There is a marked decrease in the number of students who need intervention across our four elementary schools. Using DESSA to measure our progress, we are able to drill down to see the decreasing need for intervention. We also see an increase in SEL growth across the district. Our teachers readily adopted DESSA because it is quick and easy to use, and didn’t require a heavy lift on their part. 

However, the challenge is finding time for teachers to build this into their day. Building administrators are providing structure for this to happen. One way we’ve done this is to ensure that instructional materials are easy to pick up and run with. While DESSA provides the assessment, the lessons that we select, based on the data, are from Sanford Harmony. There is a strong alignment between outcomes from DESSA and Sanford Harmony lessons. The lessons are free and web-based. They are quality materials and it’s been a user-friendly curriculum for our teachers.

School and Student Outcomes

We also use Responsive Classroom as the foundation of our classrooms. This is a student-centered social and emotional learning approach to teaching and classroom management. It is the combination of DESSA, Sanford Harmony, and Responsive Classroom that is making such a difference in our schools. These three programs working together, as well as providing our teachers professional development about trauma-informed classrooms, have completely shifted our teachers’ perspectives. The classrooms are warmer—creating community. It’s really beautiful to see. Kids are relating to each other differently and notice when their peers are absent. Teachers describe student behavior in a new way, and teachers feel empowered to help their students manage. 

It is our philosophy that teaching these skills holistically in elementary grades provides an immunization for students’ older selves, protecting against mental health challenges, risk taking behavior, and a myriad of other risk factors. Continuing to bring resources to them is how we’re going to protect our students in future years. We have the privilege of providing students a warm, nurturing, safe place for them to be. The influence we have on a child is immense and an awesome responsibility.

Technology Used

• DESSA
• Sanford Harmony

As schools across the country close in response to the COVID-19 virus, PBS and WGBH Boston have partnered to support distance learning. Beginning on Monday, March 30, the public media WORLD Channel from WGBH will provide a daily, five-hour At-Home Learning Service, for students in grades 6-12, to PBS stations nationwide.

From 12 noon – 5 pm EDT weekdays, WORLD will offer programs on science, history and English language arts, and include related learning resources from PBS LearningMedia, a free online service of thousands of educational resources. 

The new broadcast programming will be supplemented with additional resources from PBS LearningMedia, which is partnering with the WORLD Channel. The resources in PBS LearningMedia, which were developed based on feedback from educators, are aligned to curriculum standards in every state and contextualized for educational use. These resources include grab-and-go activities, lesson plans, interactive lessons, and media that illustrate specific topics or themes and support materials across subjects. 

WORLD Channel is a national public media broadcast and web-based platform that shares news, information and documentary programming that humanizes complex issues from across the globe. 

Launching remote learning? Get a weeks worth of student-facing home learning resources aligned to the NYC schools' remote learning curriculum. It's also available in Google Classroom.

More coming...next week. Visit the Teaching Matters Site to download the curriculum for your grade and subject.

cross posted at The Innovative Educator 

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.   

K12 recognizes that many schools have talented, motivated and curious students who want courses that the school can’t afford to provide. The company offers home schooling alternatives as well as single classes for things like honors, Advanced Placement and an innovative eighth grade Advanced Learner Program. While its lessons are delivered via the Web, K12 has no shortage of extra-curriculars, like music, STEM and art. Typical classes, like Honors Chemistry, costs about $450.

Best 3D Classroom Printers 

Though originally considered by some as yet another fad, 3D printers have become increasingly prevalent in schools. 3D printers can be found in libraries, technology labs, innovation labs, and similar locations within schools. 3D printing and 3D printers, depending on how they are used, can help build students’ visual spatial, math, engineering, design, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. 

Choosing the right 3D printer can be difficult with so many choices on the market. While price often plays a considerable part, the features of a 3D printer and available support should play a role as well. Here is a comparison of features of some of the top 3D printers for preK-12 schools.

Filaments to consider 

Protoplant is a Vancouver, Washington based company, with a filament line dubbed Proto-pasta. Proto-pasta offers several unique filaments including composite filaments such as metal-filled, matte fiber, and carbon fiber. One of the composite filaments they offer is an electronically conductive filament that allows users to print simple circuitry for interactive projects. The conductive filament is available in two diameters 1.75mm and 2.85mm, and can be used with most PLA compatible printers with standard PLA settings. No heat bed or special extruder required! Proto-pasta also offers heat treatable PLA, which provides more durable prints once they have been heat treated, and Polycarbonate-ABS Alloy, also designed to print resilient parts. 

3D Printing Curriculum 

Several manufacturers, as well as other companies offer 3D printing curriculum to help educators introduce 3D printing to students. The Educators Guidebook from Makerbot offers valuable lesson plans that make incorporating 3D printing into the classroom easier. The Makerbot certification program is a training opportunity (also available to purchase separately) that helps educators earn professional development credits while learning about 3D printing and designing 3D printing curriculum, and is ISTE-certified. 

The Dremel EDU bundle includes 30 standard-based lesson plans ranging from how to 3D print, to using printed items to learn additional curricular concepts. Their EDU bundle also includes a 4 Hour professional development course for teachers.

The Flashforge curriculum includes 3 lesson packs with 21 lessons, complete with presentations and 190 resources. The lesson packs include beginner, intermediate, and advanced and are aligned with the Autodesk suite.

Autodesk  offers a suite of 3D modelling software, including Fusion 360, Inventor, AutoCAD, MAYA, 3DS MAX, and Tinkercad, all of which are available free to educators and students. In addition, Autodesk offers wide variety offer courses in how to use their product, as well as projects and competitions.

Tinkerine U offers multiple resources on 3D printing, including courses, stories, experiments, and challenges for students and teachers. 

More 3D Printing Options

Looking for a more flexible 3D printing solution? Learn more at Tech&Learning's latest article on 3D pens.  To read about how schools are using 3D printing in the classroom, check out 3D Printing in Action. 

QuaverSEL

Shake up SEL lessons with music and movement

Pros: With a well-designed curriculum, this site uses a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to teaching SEL skills to young students.

Cons: The program doesn’t collect individual student responses; assessment is limited to teacher observation.

Bottom Line: Fun for students, easy for teachers, QuaverSEL uses the power of music to boost social and emotional learning.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Dr Sue Black OBE kicked it off in The Arena this morning with a talk on Overcoming Challenges, Connecting People and Empowering Others. From leaving home at 16 and having 3 kids byt the age of 23 to saving Bletchley Park with Stephen Fry, meeting Princess Anne, the Queen and Prince Charles (who gave her her knighthood), Dr Black has had an incredible life and career. Her programme #TechMums gives tech training to mums across the country and she is now Professor of Computer Science at The University of Durham. She says that anyone can learn to code - it’s just like learning to read or write!

Dame Darcey Bussell OBE, creator of Diverse Dance MIX (DDMIX) got Bett moving at her talk with the whole audience on their feet joining her in some moves.  Dame Darcey passionately believes that kids are meant to move and we’re letting them down if we don’t help them. With today’s low levels of participation in physical activity it’s important to harness not only team sports but inclusive, non competitive physical activity that matches the stimulation provided by the digital world.  

The Edtech 50 - Celebrating Ambition; Inspiring Educators took place in the Arena. The panel, moderated by Ty Goddard, co-founder of The Education Foundation, consisted of Corrine Latham, Principal of Seaview Primary School and Nursery Unit, Belfast; Zaitoon Bukhari from Witton Park Academy, Blackburn; Claire Jones, Deputy Head of Layton Primary School, Blackpool and Kirsty Grundy, Principal and Trust Primary Director of Shireland Collegiate Academy. Ty started off by saying that we are seeing much more communication through tech for schools, teachers and learners. All four leaders had a lot to say about the use of technology at their schools. At Seaview they don’t see tech as an add-on but a necessity and they use Apple, Android, Google and Microsoft devices. At Witton Park Academy they believe technology is just a tool and that the real impact comes from how these tools are used to enhance teaching and learning. At Layton Primary School they start teaching coding at age 4 and incorporate coding language (if x then y) into everyday speech. At Shireland Collegiate Academy, they are looking to develop the next generation of change makers.

The Arena Keynote Highlight - Sugata Mitra on The Future of Learning

The visionary Professor of Educational Technology headed Friday afternoon’s keynote lineup. To a packed auditorium, he introduced his thinking around "The School in the Cloud." The approach is a combination of two tested practices: First, ‘The Granny Cloud’  - where volunteer educators connect with children around the world to give them opportunities to experience worlds far removed from their own as well as encouragement and admiration that is proven to help them thrive, and secondly, self-learning environments, where by using the internet students are able to find answers self-sufficiently. What they found was that schools in the cloud improve comprehension (in general, not just literacy), communication (the ability to demonstrate that you have comprehended) and computing (ability to solve a problem using the internet) in children.

Mitra’s most striking remarks drew a sharp focus on the current schooling system, the curriculum and in particular, the way that student’s knowledge and understanding is assessed - something he argued was firmly rooted in the past. He suggested that the use of internet and collaboration simply must be allowed during assessment and posed the question: "If we are using it 24/7, why is it that your child should not be able to just that too?"  Summarised as a 'senseless and obsolete" system that we don’t need any more, Mitra instead proposed a future curriculum structured around the questions that we don’t know the answers to in order to foster the ability in children to solve problems "just in time" i.e. to find accurate and current answers to questions. 

His parting thoughts on the future of learning drew us to encourage greater emphasis on fantasy rather than limited methods of looking at the future that are currently used in schools. 

I’m starting to get the feeling that we’ve reached critical mass. When I work with social studies teachers around the country, I always make sure they’re familiar with the work by Sam Wineburg and the Stanford History Education Group.

SHEG’s Reading Like a Historian lessons and Beyond the Bubble assessments are the kinds of non-negotiable tools that belong in every teacher’s toolkit. But for the longest time, it seemed as if very few teachers had actually heard about the SHEG site. Of course, as soon as these teachers had the chance to explore the available tools, they were blown away.

Lately I’ve run into more and more teachers who are already familiar with the site and are finding very cool ways of integrating SHEG resources into their instruction. Maybe we’ve reached the point where most teachers have heard about the SHEG goodness and we all love it. (If you’re still not sure what sorts of SHEG lessons and assessments are available, for Pete’s sake, stop reading and head over to check it out.)

If you are using SHEG resources, I feel a little like a TV infomercial host this morning when I say, “but wait . . . there’s more.”

Because SHEG has some new stuff.

Several years ago, SHEG added what they called Civic Online Reasoning tools. But it was a bit understated. This fall?

They’ve gone full blown into supporting both lessons and assessments that you can use to help kids make sense of online information. Their new COR site has been re-organized and repackaged, they’ve added to new tools and resources, and they’re sharing the research that supports their work.

On the new site, SHEG founder Sam Wineburg posted a great article titled “What’s at Stake.” Based a bit on his latest book, Why Study History (When It’s Already on Your Phone,) the article lays out the reasons why these new SHEG resources are so important. Simply put, Wineburg claims that our democracy is at stake.

University of Connecticut professor Michael Lynch calls the internet “both the world’s best fact checker and the world’s best bias confirmer – often at the same time.”

I’ve come to believe that reliable information is to civic health what clean water and proper sanitation are to public health. Never has so much information been at our fingertips as it is today. Whether this bounty will make us smarter and better informed or more ignorant and narrow-minded will depend on one thing: our educational response to this challenge.

Their short video clip also lays out some of the great reasons why we should all be checking out these new tools:

The curriculum is broken into lessons, assessments, and what SHEG is calling collections. At first, it might be a bit confusing finding what you need. But keep at it – all of the tools are based on strategies they’ve identified when observing fact checkers from the nation’s most prestigious news organizations. The curriculum is the “fruit of years of research and field-testing.” Their work is enriched by their ongoing collaboration with the Poynter Institute and participation in the MediaWise initiative.

The cool thing about all of the resources (not just the COR tools) created by SHEG is that they’ve been tested in real classrooms. I love that the stuff I’m getting has been vetted by actual teachers who’ve used these things with kids.

All of the work is based on three questions:

The best way to find what you’re looking for is to simply click on one of the three questions. This takes you directly to that section of tools for quick and easy access.

You can also click the Curriculum tab, then Lessons & Assessments, and finally the List button on the right hand side. This gives you all of the resources in scrollable and viewable format. You also have the option to use a keyword search but . . . until you’ve played with the site a bit, you’re probably not really sure what to search for.

A great example of the kinds of things your kids will learn through COR is the ability to evaluate photos with reverse image search. Photographs and other images circulate rapidly online and are often gripping, persuasive forms of evidence. It is difficult to tell if these images accurately depict what their posters claim they do, and it is often tempting to take these images at face value. If we trust images without verifying their accuracy, we risk believing false claims and narratives. This lesson helps you train your kids to be better at discovering origins of images they experience online. And every lesson and assessment comes with a student video and teaching materials that are available for download.

But no matter how you find and use what you need, this is a valuable third leg of the SHEG stool. History lessons. History assessments. And now civic online reasoning tools.

Because Sam is right. Training our kids to make sense of evidence and to use it appropriately is too important to leave to hit and miss.

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.

CoderZ introduces a new cyber-robotics curriculum for students in grades five through eight. The Cyber Robotics 102 curriculum is a sequel to CoderZ’s Cyber Robotics 101 and uses advanced gaming simulations to teach STEM through robotics and computer science. The comprehensive course offers 15-20 hours of curriculum and practice. 

Cyber Robotics 102 has students work in an online virtual environment that features a new robot called Ruby and that accurately mimics real-life physics and a physical setting. Students advance through game levels as they learn engineering, mechanics, physics, navigation, control and sensors. At the same time, those students are introduced to programming components like commands, variables, conditional logic, loops, functions and more. 

The online, gamified, turn-key curriculum comes with teacher support materials such as class presentations, teacher guides, optional mission solutions, webinars and rich-content blogs. Additionally, teachers can have students work on the course from any computer, even from home. 

For more information on the Cyber Robotics 102 curriculum, visit https://gocoderz.com/cyber-robotics-102/.

Lalilo

K-2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities

Pros: Focused design. Great skills coverage. Offers student-driven, adaptive learning with at-a-glance data.

Cons: Activities could use text instructions and better modeling. More support videos would help. No placement test (yet).

Bottom Line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Mars Student Imaging Project

Take science research out of this world with NASA's Mars project

Pros: This complete package of curriculum, resources, and professionals to support your class’s science and space learning goals.

Cons: Teachers new to the program should brace themselves for a serious learning curve: Implementation can be weeks-long.

Bottom Line: One of the best authentic inquiry space experiences out there: Use this tool to grow the next generation of researchers in your classroom.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

It may be the time of year for Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza celebrations but that doesn’t mean that students have to stop learning. To start, how about a class project to print greeting cards. There’s a nice assortment of cards for the holidays that allow kids to type their customized their message in their choice of color and font. There’re even cards for the school Grinch, like “It’s Christmas – Deal with it!”

From its symbols and vocabulary to the history of Kwanzaa, the holiday’s lesson plan from TeacherVision has it all with a graphic organizer that can help make everything fit together. On the downside, the materials are only available to TeacherVision Premium subscribers but if you sign up for a trial membership you can get three free downloads.

The oldest of the three holidays, Hanukkah may date back more than 2,200 years ago, but Education World’s curriculum can make it seem like it occurred yesterday. With historical references, explanations of the lights and readings aimed at different age groups, it should fit into any social studies curriculum.

Finally, PNC bank has created a Christmas Price Index that adds up the cost of the traditional presents explained in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” From turtle doves to golden rings, it’s a great math project to do before the holiday break.

The second generation of Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum is even better than the first at showing students that creating simple (and some complex) apps is not as hard as it sounds. The how-to program package is used in 5,000 schools and is built around games, puzzles, guides and videos that can be included to augment existing curriculum, like math, science and even art classes. The key is that creating apps can be a natural extension of any school’s teaching and the Everyone Can Code approach can help show the way.

Google has prepared a comprehensive curriculum that schools can use to teach students proper Web etiquette, online health and respect for others. Aimed at K-through-12 classrooms, Be Internet Awesome emphasizes five aspects of online life. In addition to being thoughtful about sharing online comments and looking for the telltale signs of online fakes, the program seeks to strengthen the user’s privacy and to foster an online ethic of kindness. Finally, the program emphasizes that students should always feel free to ask adults when they’re uncertain what to do. The curriculum package includes a form letter to adults, lessons plans and culminates with Google’s Interland game to expand and reinforce the classroom work. 

Gale and Udemy, have partnered to provide public libraries with an alternative solution to LinkedIn Learning. 

Coming Winter 2020, Gale will be launching Gale Presents: Udemy, a dynamic content platform powered by Udemy for Business, that uses a data-driven curation process to deliver over 3,500 on-demand video courses across more than 75 different categories. With just a library card (no LinkedIn account needed), library patrons will be able to access these courses for free at participating public libraries. 

Read more about Gale Presents: Udemy here. 

The latest how-to coding book from No Starch Press is Super Scratch Programming Adventure! A graphic novel that teaches kids (and inclined adults) the basics of Scratch programming, the book’s lessons are light, visual and the goal is to show students how to use version 3 of the free programming language to get started coding a variety of basic video games.

The days of sending students home with crumpled up art projects are happily over, thanks to online Artsonia portfolios. Used by 50,000 schools, kids create online collections of their artwork that can be viewed at home and shared with everyone from grandparents to college admissions officers. Using the app and online storage is free and there are lesson plans available. Schools can use Artsonia’s ability to make everything from calendars and coffee mugs to jewelry and T-shirts as artistic fund-raisers.

I was excited to offer two sessions this year at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference. Below are the resources from the event.

Impactful EdTech Coaching

Click here for the slide deck.

Too often, schools launch new technology without a plan for supporting and coaching teachers through the process of using modern technology effectively in their classrooms. One key to launching and supporting the marriage of EdTech and curriculum is increasing the opportunity to support teachers and help them raise student achievement. Today’s students’ needs vary as they are growing up in the digital learning age. Knowing how to integrate existing tech with today’s instructional best practices and strategies engage students to maximize learning. Supporting educators on this journey is a critical step.

Just like with teaching, we need to differentiate instruction/support to meet the needs of the teachers. There is no “one size fits all” approach. The support is also not one time; it is a cycle of support. This cycle generally consists of setting goals, co-planning lessons, observation, and debrief after the lesson. Each step is done collaboratively with the teacher and the integration specialist.

Creating a Collaborative Culture

Click here for the slide deck.

Unlike professionals who work in the private sector, teachers spend most of the day with children in classrooms. Yes, a teachers’ job is to be in front of students. However, as a profession, we should be working tirelessly to find new ways for educators to work together when students are not in front of them. Creating collaborative opportunities will reduce the feeling of working in a silo. In the teaching profession, the word silo usually references a teacher who becomes isolated in their classroom or academic subject and consequently experiences little to no interaction with colleagues. This lack of interaction can stunt professional growth and become a detriment to student learning. Some teachers prefer to work unsupervised and uninterrupted. This singular mindset creates silos and isolation and sometimes breeds an intimidating culture in the school. Teachers benefit and grow from sharing and learning from each other. Think about what we tell our students to do when they have a question: “Ask three before me” or “Work with a partner.” We need to empower and encourage educators to do the same. Teachers and administrators, do you collaborate when you have a question or want support? Isolation can be detrimental to one’s professional development. By interacting with colleagues in our own or other fields, we can gain new insights. We can also share ideas and experiences that will improve our teaching. This book focuses on practical strategies and solutions to increase collaboration and enhance school culture.

cross posted at techinnovation.live

Dr. Matthew X. Joseph is currently the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Leicester Public Schools. He has been a school and district leader in many capacities in public education over his 25 years in the field. Experiences such as the Director of Digital Learning and Innovation, elementary school principal, classroom teacher, and district professional development specialist. His work and experience focus on supporting teaching and learning. Follow Dr. Joseph on twitter at @MatthewXJoseph or read his blog techinnovation.live

The latest additions to the Virtual High School’s Web-based curriculum include a forward-thinking class on securing computers in a hostile online world. The 15-week course not only includes lessons on the most insidious malware and hacking threats, but how to protect networks and systems from them. There are sections on encryption as well as an introduction to practicing good online hygiene. Aimed at grades nine and above, the class has no prerequisites.

Osmo takes early education to a new level by adding the interaction with physical objects to personalize tablet-based learning. Built as add-ons to the iPad or Amazon Fire tablet, Osmo can stimulate critical thinking and accelerate traditional lessons by integrating a slew of manipulative objects for students to work with. After snapping on Osmo’s optical reflector, the tablet’s camera shows what’s at desk level so that when kids draw, play with tangrams or arrange letters, it all shows up on the tablet’s display. This interactive workspace has been customized by age groups with three models: the Little Genius pack (meant for preschoolers) costs $55.30 and emphasizes developing motor skills; the $69.30 Genius kit (for elementary students) works on skills like spelling, math and problem-solving; and Osmo’s $137.90 Explorer set (for middle schoolers) pushes coding and problem-solving.

Like all Texas districts, Beaumont aligns its instruction and assessments based on student performance on the state’s STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) tests. All K–8 students are screened using Renaissance Star Assessments in reading, math, or early literacy three times each year. Using the screening data, students are placed in the best place for their needs and receive targeted tutorials based on their domain scores.

Beaumont has been using a scripted data-driven instruction (DDI) protocol for several years to guide conversations in their PLCs. For example, all fourth grade math teachers meet and discuss student data together. They script out the approach and instructional delivery to ensure student mastery for the following week. Identifying exact resources to use and how the goals are to be accomplished, teachers leave with a specific plan to achieve learning goals. 

The district uses Accelerated Reader to monitor independent reading, support the self-selection of leveled reading material, and foster a growth mindset. The students also use the data to monitor their own progress. Each student has a data folder where they graph their work in reading, math, and writing every one-to-two weeks. This practice helps students invest in their own academic success. 

Beaumont also uses a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to help build relationships with students. These personal connections provide students the emotional stability they need to focus on learning. The district has implemented the free Sanford Harmony curriculum in every K–5 classroom. Each day students model practices and have conversations that tie back to the goals they have set for themselves. SEL fosters a family environment that gives students tools to manage their behavior and to feel secure and ready to learn. 

To increase access to books at home, the district purchased the My-on Digital Library with thousands of digital books. The platform can be accessed via smartphone, laptop, iPad, Kindle, Fire HD, or desktop computer. To help provide this technology, the district received a grant to provide Chromebooks, Kindle Fire HDs, and WiFi devices for parents to check out from school. 

The weekly data review in addition to the SEL curriculum, facilitated by the appropriate technology, ensures that Beaumont students stay on track to achieve their learning goals.

Technology Used

Renaissance Star Assessments

Accelerated Reader

My-on Digital Library

Collin Yust has been teaching second through fourth graders for over 10 years. “Put me in front of a class—math or English—and I’m comfortable jumping in,” he says. Coding, however, was another story. When Yust learned about Codelicious he knew it would be a great way to introduce a creative new element to his block periods for math, social studies, and science. He received support from his forward-thinking district to implement the curriculum in his classroom. “But I’m not tech savvy—though I’m better now—and I was a little nervous about teaching coding,” he says. So he did what any good student does—he did his homework. He taught himself to code by going through the Codelicious lessons. 

“It seems daunting—but if I can do it, anyone can do it,” he says. “Codelicious is very teacher friendly, and it’s progressive and personalized, so students learn basic skills and the projects, many of which are game based, get harder.” His students particularly love the soccer game and space activities, and Yust loves that Codelicious is cross-curricular so he can integrate coding into science and other subject areas. “The kids get fired up because they can see the connections,” he says.

More Confident Students and Future Coders

While increased confidence might not be the first benefit of learning to code that comes to mind, it’s an important one. “Codelicious has given some kids a chance to shine,” Yust says. “When a shy student gives a demo on the SMART Board, for example, that new confidence carries into other areas too.” 

Through debugging activities, students are developing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills as well. “It’s awesome to see students have that experience of figuring something out,” he says. “It’s hard for third graders to see the big picture and think long-term, so that kind of instant gratification is great.” 

Students are also connecting what they’re learning to the games they play outside school. “They think about all the coding that’s behind the scenes of the decisions characters make—and it gives them an idea of classes they might take in middle or high school and career opportunities they might want to explore.” 

And, Yust says, because they love it so much, Codelicious is also a great motivator for kids to stay on task with math and other core subjects so they can get to their coding lessons and projects.

Pro Tip

“I jumped right in and taught myself the curriculum, and that was the best preparation for teaching something entirely new,” says Yust, a self-professed history buff who never thought he’d be teaching coding. “When I made mistakes, I’d go back and figure it out. Many of those were the same mistakes that happened in the classroom, so I was prepared to help guide students. I tried to be as many lessons ahead of them as possible.”

Warren Township used some of the funding they received through Race to the Top to complete a 1:1 initiative with Chromebooks, which allowed Yust to bring in the Codelicious curriculum. Yust also uses the science money he receives each year to invest in another set of Snap Circuits. “Every year, with another set, more kids can use them more often,” he says.

Tech Used in the Classroom

--Chromebooks (Lowell Elementary is in the midst of a “soft transition” from Chromebooks to iPads)

--Codelicious

--Snap Circuits

Explosive Disposal

Next semester I am very excited to teach a new elective class called "Engineering for Social Good". The overarching goal for the course is to position isolated skills in coding, design, fabrication, electronics, CAD, etc., students have acquired in previous courses into a service context. I will be developing the course here. 

While I have a loose idea of the curriculum, I am this week in my Introduction to Robotics course to a test a few activities. An area of interest I currently have is the use of robots to carry important tasks that, in the past, resulted in human injury. One such area is  explosive disposal.  

I am interested in how challenging students to simulate the explosive disposal process (we use the VEX V5 system) helps to build empathy for the risks various service providers face when working to protect our society. Using the VEX Vision Sensor and the VEX V5 Starter Kit I designed this challenge, this "Public Product" requirement, and put the students to work. View an example of student work here. 

A Few Good Men

I have written in the past about how I love to use medical case studies to spark inquiry in biology class. This week, to conclude a 5E Inquiry Cycle on Cellular Respiration, students were challenged to solve this case taken directly from the movie A Few Good Men (upon surveying, NONE of my students have seen the movie. Shocking but better for the lesson!).

Rather tell my students the correct diagnosis upon completion of their diagnosis presentations, I showed this video clip taken from the movie that reveals the diagnosis (Lactic Acidosis) for the students. Much more impactful and fun! Then, once the diagnosis has been revealed through the movie, I move into a responsive lecture about how the condition relates to current content in the class. 

Flash Cards 

Unlike the above reflections, this teaching example is super simple. Students spent today preparing for a quiz the on  intermolecular forces in chemistry. Answering the questions on the quiz require students drawing a diagram to represent molecular interactions. Each group of students created a question, then solved their own problem directly on a personal whiteboard. 

I then created a blank Google Slides preso, altered the settings, shorted the URL, and shared it with my students. Students then inserted their question into one slide and used their web cams to insert an image of the whiteboard from the previous question into the next slide. Within 20 minutes our class had made a deck of practice problems, that, when placed in presentation mode, behave like a set of flash cards. I then shared the slides with my students for strategic review. Click here for the final product. 

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.

Gale, a Cengage company, today announced the launch of Gale In Context: For Educators, a new product that aims to give educators a more effective approach to curriculum development and classroom instruction. Fueled by content from the Gale In Context suite of student databases, For Educators provides standards-aligned lesson plans and instructional materials. A toolkit helps educators collect, personalize and share resources with colleagues and students across their district.

Gale In Context: For Educators provides:

• Instructional Support: helps teachers discover digital learning materials to supplement their classroom curriculum with national and state standards-aligned instructional content and related lesson plans.
• Customization: helps provide personalized and differentiated instruction with tools and features that can identify and customize resources for diverse classroom needs.
• Workflow Tools: enables educators to access curriculum-aligned resources across their subscribed products in a single interface, integrated with other workflow tools and platforms.
• Smarter Collaboration: connects library resources to classroom curriculum and gives educators—within schools and across districts—the means to share and collaborate around resources for students.

Gale will showcase Gale In Context: For Educators at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Conference, November 14-16 in Louisville, KY at Gale booth #101.

For more information or to request a trial on Gale In Context: For Educators, visit: http://www.gale.com/foreducators.

Edgenuity, provider of online curriculum and instructional services for the K-12 market, today announced an expanded library of Social and Emotional Learning (“SEL”) courses through its Courseware product line. 

Edgenuity added a series of SEL courses and intervention topics through the company’s partnership with online course provider Purpose Prep. Edgenuity customers now have access to six SEL courses integrated into Courseware Mental Health & Wellness, College and Career Readiness, Social & Emotional Success, Unlock Your Purpose, Character & Leadership Development and Personal Development. The curriculum addresses topical interventions for students at risk or in need of behavioral supports and intervention. 

Each SEL course aligns to core competencies outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) best practices. 

Educators interested learning more about Edgenuity’s SEL offering, can visit the Edgenuity website.

Michigan’s Saline Area Schools (SAS) today announced a new multiyear partnership with Discovery Education focused on helping district students build proficiency in the “4C” (Communication, Creativity and Innovation, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving) skills needed for post-graduate success.  

SAS selected a number of Discovery Education’s digital resources for use by district teachers and students in grades 6-8.  Among the digital resources now available in SAS classrooms are:

Discovery Education Experience.  Discovery Education Experience provides personalized digital curriculum resources delivered to the educator based on their preferences.  The resources, including growing digital content collections, as well as a library of immersive virtual field trips, are drawn from trusted partners.

STEM Connect.  STEM Connect is a web-based, interdisciplinary K-8 supplemental resource. STEM Connect helps students develop creative, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills, and was recently awarded the CODiE award by the Software and Information Industry Association. STEM Connect provides students an educational experience that includes real-world challenges, career connections, and hands-on activities.

Discovery Education Science Techbooks.   A full digital curriculum, the Science Techbook utilizes an inquiry-based format built on the Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate (5E) model, each Science Techbook includes rich, standards-aligned content such as video, audio, text, interactives with hands-on activities, and virtual labs.

Discovery Education Social Studies Techbook.  The Social Science Techbook uses an inquiry-based instructional approach that emphasizes informational text literacy, analytical writing, and problem-solving skills. The digital curriculum is standards-aligned and features content from stories of ancient cultures to current events.

For more information about Discovery Education’s digital resources and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com.

Gale, a Cengage company, has partnered with Mackin, distributor of K-12, print and digital resources, to make its database content available on the MackinVIA digital content management platform. Now MackinVIA customers can search Gale databases using MackinVIA’s new Deep Discovery™ tool to find authoritative content.

MackinVIA’s Deep Discovery™ makes it easier to search through Gale’s educational databases on MackinVIA. Entering a search term on the MackinVIA databases page directs the system to simultaneously submit that query to all participating database products in a school’s MackinVIA account and displays the corresponding results count. 

Gale’s digital, curriculum-aligned solutions cover:  

• Business & Economics
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Law & Government
• Literature & Drama
• Technology
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• U.S. History & World History

For more information, visit Gale’s MackinVIA webpage.

The Connections Model today launched its KidConnect Ready2Learn Curriculum, a  social-emotional learning (SEL) program that helps teachers provide instruction on the skills students need for success in school and in life. Based on the latest brain research and the understanding that emotions drive behavior, the curriculum provides teachers with the tools to help learners identify, understand, and manage their emotions. The curriculum is designed for classroom instruction across grades K-6 and includes 26 lessons centered on targeted skills. 

In launching the Ready2Learn Curriculum, The Connections Model builds upon its KidConnect Classroom App, which gives teachers the ability to intervene with individual students in the moment of a behavioral incident caused by emotional dysregulation. 

The curriculum divides the process of healthy emotional regulation into four navigable units that include the following:

• Building an emotional vocabulary by defining 16 common emotions and helping students reflect on past experiences to identify when certain feelings emerged across a variety of situations. 
• Making connections between emotions and behaviors. Students begin to build self-awareness and social awareness by working through a variety of group activities to practice identifying and controlling their reactions. 
• Learning strategies to manage emotions. Students work with each other through a variety of situations to identify off-target behaviors and provide tactics to move toward healthy, on-target actions.
• Practicing a variety of strategies and mindfulness techniques to help regulate emotions, increase self-esteem, and develop coping mechanisms.

TED-Ed

Support kids' sense of wonder with outstanding short video lessons

Pros: With fantastic animations, TED-Ed can take even sometimes-boring subjects and transform them into wildly engaging content.

Cons: Non-video lesson content quality varies, so students may need additional ways to demonstrate learning.

Bottom Line: TED-Ed includes excellent, engaging videos and support for flipped-class lessons with an incredible community of thinkers and doers.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Capstone announces substantial updates to its PebbleGo™ database to facilitate accessibility for all students. Among the improvements include compliance with Section 508 standards (U.S. Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and WCAG 2.1 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), ensuring PebbleGo is accessible to children with vision, cognitive, physical, and hearing disabilities.

New accessibility features include:

• Simple, predictable navigation
• Text-to-Speech on all articles
• Transcripts for all videos
• Alternative text and descriptive titles for meaningful images
• Screen reader support
• Access keys for keyboard-only navigation
• Color contrast design to support students with color-blindness and low vision

PebbleGo is now also mobile-responsive, offering touchscreen navigation and providing at-home and on-the-go access on smartphones, tablets, and computers to support school-to-home programs, independent learning and English language learners. 

All PebbleGo modules include text written for the needs of K-3 learners, narrated by professional voice-over artists to provide scaffolds for emerging and struggling readers and English language learners.

PebbleGo was named a Best of Show at ISTE 2019 winner by Tech & Learning

Mentoring Minds has announced a strategic partnership with single sign-on (SSO) innovator, Clever, Inc. The collaboration will allow schools connected with Clever to easily access Mentoring Minds’ materials through their existing login credentials, with no need for any additional set-up. 

Mentoring Minds recently launched a new digital platform that provides supplemental curriculum materials to help incorporate critical thinking development into classrooms. These materials are now easily accessible through Clever’s SSO Portal.  

Used by more than 55 percent of U.S. K-12 schools, Clever brings all applications into one secure portal and provides SSO for everyone in the district. 

For more information on Mentoring Minds’ critical thinking resources, visit https://www.mentoringminds.com/

Accelerate Learning is adding a new dimension to its STEM curriculum solutions with the release of its first core mathematics program, STEMscopes™ Math. The online, comprehensive math curriculum launches this month in Texas. 

In the first year, the new STEMscopes Math curriculum will be available for grades 3–5. The core program is built from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and it will be available in English and Spanish. Accelerate Learning will then expand the curriculum to grades K–8 and launch Common Core and custom state versions in the coming years. Like other STEMscopes products, STEMscopes Math will be customized to meet the exact state standards at each grade level.

Using the 5E plus Intervention and Acceleration lesson model, STEMscopes Math provides interactive learning using the Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA) approach. The curriculum features inquiry-based math investigations, virtual manipulatives, and interactive games to engage students as they build their understanding. It supports critical thinking and real-world exploration with open-ended, cross-dimensional tasks that promote a range of student approaches and responses in multiple contexts. 

For teachers, STEMscopes Math provides embedded strategies for diverse learners, including English language learners and students who need additional support. 

STEMscopes Math has partnered with MetaMetrics to include predictive assessments for each grade level to provide standards-based data and Quantile measures that track student progress and inform instruction. 

STEMscopes solutions can be used in 1:1, blended, and traditional classrooms. 

For more information, visit http://stemscopes.com or call toll-free 800-531-0864. 

Today IXL Learning, the K-12 personalized learning platform, announced the release of the IXL app for Android phones. Featuring IXL’s complete curriculum of more than 8,000 skills across math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish, the IXL Android app can be downloaded for free on the Google Play Store.

With this release and the recent release of IXL for iPhone, the IXL app is fully available across all major mobile devices including iPad, Android tablets, Kindle, and Chromebook. 

On IXL, personalized questions adapt to students' current level of understanding, introducing concepts at the perfect time and at the right difficulty level. 

Along with IXL’s curriculum, the IXL Android phone app offers a number of mobile-only features. For example, handwriting recognition allows students to enter their answers to math questions by writing on the screen. The app also displays a real-time progress bar that displays how close they are to achieving their next milestone. The SIIA CODiE Awards has recognized this mobile interface as the Best Educational App for a Mobile Device for two years.

The IXL app is free to download and features 10 practice questions each day for students not subscribed to IXL. IXL members can sign in through the app and practice unlimited questions across all grade levels and subjects. Learn more about IXL's capabilities and download each app at www.ixl.com/apps.

826 Digital

Popular after-school program shares its resources with teachers

Pros: Writing activities have creative age-appropriate topics that'll connect with students.

Cons: Some activities use web videos but don't include links, so teachers have to search online. There's not much on offer for primary grades.

Bottom Line: This is a worth-bookmarking resource thanks to relatable writing lessons and motivating examples of actual student writing.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education