This post is mostly about STEM, but scroll down for some resources on media literacy as well as some early reading resources.
I took the vacation week off from writing a blog post, but did 5 days of PD instead. One of the best overall STEM conferences I have attended recently was the 4 day Elem STEM con. This was very inexpensive with the early bird registration and is still a deal at ~ $50 for the sessions available. You can still register thru the end of this month, only 3 more days. Check out the resources. I spent 4-7 hours/day at this conference for 4 days and still have not even listened to half of the presentations. They expanded to include more secondary STEM, as well as a lot of great information for DEI and Special Ed.
The other great PD I attended was an all day MakeyMakey workshop- "virtually hands-on". Next month will be the Circuit Playground workshop. These are sponsored by CS for MA. STEM Links
These are some of the STEM links from the Elementary STEM CON as well as the Amplify STEM conference. One that I really liked, surprisingly enough was one on math-Through the Looking Glass, Strengthening Arithmetic Skills with Fresh Perspectives. Sunil Singh was so engaging and made this fun. He also shared great links for math games that I will include below.
Reading Resources
These look great- and they are free! Student activity centers for PreK thru grade 5. FLORIDA CENTER FOR READING RESEARCH
Thinking about PD for the summer?
Aside fromInfosys, which I highly recommend, check outEducator Alexander's series. Media Literacy
Wes Fryer recently shared a media literacy lesson he created for his 5th grade class. Thanks Wes, for freely sharing your work! You can access the lesson here.
My go-to resource for media literacy is the News Literacy Project. They now have resources and lesson plans for grades 4 and up. This, in addition to the Checkology program and the NLP Sift make an excellent foundation for all of our students. "The Sift, NLP’s free weekly newsletter for educators — delivered during the school year — explores timely examples of misinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics and discusses social media trends and issues. It also includes links, discussion prompts and activities for use in the classroom."
They have recently introduced an upper elementary unit to help students learn to tell fact from opinion. Check it out here.
This lesson is designed to help students learn the difference between fact-based and opinion-based statements. The lesson includes a fun slideshow activity, handy flowchart, graphic organizer and other materials tailored for grades 4-6.
0 Comments
This has been a crazy couple of weeks. Emotions run high, lots of uncertainty, COVID numbers increase... hard for both teachers and students to get back into a rhythm of learning. I actually learned a lot this past week, attending the STEM 4 Innovation conference, the Future of CS conference and a Friday night Leslie Fisher webinar on what's new with FlipGrid. Next week brings FETC, a free virtual conference.
Attending virtual conferences, while not at all like meeting people and talking with them in person, has been a great way to stay in touch with other teachers, with what is new in the tech integration world and learning more about how to help teachers with the pivot from f2f to remote learning. I was fortunate enough to snag a ticket to the Future of CS conference and 2 things really stood out to me. One was the role of AI or artificial intelligence in our everyday lives and how we can best begin to or continue to teach these basics to K-12 students. The other was the fact that technology is inherently biased along racial and gender lines. I attended an incredibly informative workshop run by Vicky Sedgwick, Alexis Cobo and Kelly Powers. Vicky has kindly given me permission to share the slidedeck. There are embedded links on the slides and an amazing amount of additional resources linked on the last few slides.
The other takeaway from this conference was from Dr. Nicki Washington's final keynote called, Do You *Really* Want an Inclusive CS of the Future? She points out in example after example that “Racism isn’t a BUG, it’s a FEATURE.” I hope to get access to a shareable recording of this one, as I think everyone would benefit from hearing more about this issue. It was a very powerful presentation. We also received complimentary passes to view Coded Bias- which I also highly recommend.
Ideas to Share
Teaching Social Justice is More than One Lesson
Hyperdocs to help teach social justice. This blog post includes 5 hyperdocs to help students process the recent events and to work through ideas on social justice.
Teaching Social Justice is More than One Lesson
Big Deal Media published a series of articles on Media Literacy today. Images are linked to the resources.
If you are interested in media literacy, be sure to sign up for NewsLitCamp with CNN, coming up on Jan. 26. https://newslit.org/updates/all-educators-newslitcamp-with-cnn-worldwide/
More math...Mathigon is an excellent online math resource. It's "the textbook of the future".
Good Changes in JamboardThis past week has brought a couple of great changes in Jamboard. First you can customize backgrounds... and the one everyone was waiting for- revision history! To access revision history on the chromebook: Ctrl Alt Shift H Need to lock items in place on Jamboard? Check it out... Yet more templatesWe are Teachers shared a great collection of 25 Google Slides templates recently. You can check them out here. There have also been some amazing holiday themed google slide decks shared on social media. This Grinch choice board came from [email protected] This Grinch Pear Deck template came from Dalton Tedder on Twitter. You can get your own copy here - https://t.co/4je10gu8sU?amp=1 Or try some Grinch Pixel Art ( addition and Subtraction) I haven't tried this one yet, but love the idea of Green Screen Snow Globes NewsLitCampI can't say enough positive things about NewsLitCamp PD. I attended one last week and plan to attend the next one with CNN on Jan 26th. Especially in today's uncertain times, we need to help ourselves, our students and our communities parse out the truth in the media we consume. I was hoping that it was recorded, but John SIlva did share the resource folder link with us. The one I just attended was the Texas Tribune, but all of them are in the resources, and sooo much more. However, hearing this stuff live, discussing it; we need to do more in schools to promote media literacy. Join the next one on January 26th. Sign up here!
This is Media Literacy Week. The past several years, in particular, have shown us that we need to become much more aware of media literacy and we need to teach our students how to ferret out what is and is not true online and to examine the influences of social media on the way we look at the world. Need a little refresher? Here are the key questions to ask in a downloadable pdf. Check out the educator's resources from the New York Times. They have a great lesson, contributed by a teacher on media literacy. I still remember the first time I ever learned about the "filter bubble". This was back before I ever noticed that I was being inundated by ads for things that I spent 30 seconds on, or had searched for. If you haven't seen the video- check it out. It has gotten worse. Your confirmation bias is just compounded, even within search. This is not news... video is almost 10 years old now! One of my favorite resources is actually from Canada. Media Smarts has put together lessons, divided by grade band for each day of Media Literacy Week. Short, and to the point, they communicate all the basics and leave room for exploration. There are now many sites out there to help you and your students become more media literate. One of the latest is The Media Manipulation Casebook. This is another effort from the Harvard Kennedy School, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Social Policy. They also produce Meme War Weekly (MWW): a newsletter dedicated to addressing political messaging that comes from the wilds of the internet, BIG, If True: a webinar series, hosted by Dr. Joan Donovan and presented by the Technology and Social Change Research Project, as well as research papers like Canaries in the Coal Mine: COVID-19 Misinformation and Black Communities by Brandi Collins-Dexter PBS has put together an excellent collection on media literacy for grades 6+. You can access these resources here.
Looking for something for younger children? Check out Soul Pancake's Kid Correspondent series. There are 5 videos so far. There are also excellent resources available from Common Sense Media. 5 Essential questions is an excellent beginning of these lessons. Check out the News and Media literacy toolkit, here. KQED is another great resource. Check out their Analyzing and Evaluating Media course here.
Once again, it is digital citizenship week, Oct 19-23, 2020. This year, as we have seen the lack of civility increase and almost seem to have become the norm here in the US, it has never been more important to remind both ourselves and our students what it means to be a good digital citizen.
The 6th Annual #DigCitSummit was on Wednesday, October 14, 2020.
You can find more information at digcitinstitute.com/digcitsummit-2020.html.
Where can you find more resources?
My top 2 resources are Brain Pop and CommonSense Media.
BrainPop has an ever growing, excellent collection, both for educators and for the students, including a 4 month digital citizenship course for grades 3-5. We have a full school-wide subscription at HES, so students can have access to all. There are some resources aimed atK-2, at 3-5 and 6-8th grade bands. Brain Pop Jr also offers some resources.
Commonsense Media has an excellent collection of lesson plans for teachers, videos for students and even games to help teach these concepts. For 5 year olds right up through 18 year olds, you will find resources on Commonsense Media. The also offer a great selection of webinars- with recordings available, in case you cannot make the scheduled times. Students will also enjoy learning these concepts by playing Digital Passport or Digital Compass. Check out #WideOpenSchool resources for digital citizenship. These can be sorted by grade level as well. Gr 9-12 Gr 6-8 Gr 3-5 Gr K-2 Preschool
Digital Passport is designed for grades 3-5. You can click on the image below to play . Teachers can assign these games directly via Google Classroom here.
Be Internet Awesome Interland, with a downloadable curriculum and games from Google is a classroom favorite. They even have Pear Deck slides all made for you, along with activities to go along with the games.
These are cute, but I teach high school...
OK, Commonsense Media does extend all the way up through high school, but here's another one that I just saw this morning, that you may find useful. Frank Baker, an internationally recognized media literacy expert, has a website with tons of great resources. I missed his webinar last night, but plan to actually watch the recording because I found it intriguing. I, like many of you, have my own confirmation bias issues. He did a webinar on how the current president has been viewed by the media. I may well not agree with what this one says, but I also think it is vitally important to crawl out of my bubble once in awhile and really see/listen to others. So, without previewing... here you go. Another incredible resource is Renee Hobbs and the Media Education Lab. https://www.mediaeducationlab.com/
Even More Resources...
This resource was shared by one of our readers. Grace Coleman passes this along from one of their club members. 'Cyber Bullying: A Guide to Internet and Computer Safety' guide our member Sarah found... https://www.nominus.com/en/dm/blog/hosting/cyberbullying-a-guide-to-internet-and-computer-safety Thanks Sarah!
When?
Two posts from amazing educators stood out for me this past week. One was about Daniel Pink's new book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing; and the other was from Jessica Twomey and Christine Pinto's #Innovative Play- 2 great resources- Connected Play Centers and MLK Character Traits Study .
I actually saw images with Pink's "controversial" statements about the research on timing of math in school, not realizing that this was part of Pink's book, until Matt Miller tweeted about Pink's keynote at FETC. So, I haven't read the book yet. I ordered a hard copy (so I could lend it out after I read it), which should be arriving today. But I was intrigued by the research cited and have questions about it.
Here's Matt's sketchnote:
Images from Keynote attendees' posts
So, what subject comes first in the school day? Is the data only related to math or all subjects? What does later in the day mean... how subjective is this? And last but not least- breaks... How do you time all of this? How much control do teachers have/should teachers have over scheduling?
How ? The #Innovative Play Way
I have always found that early childhood and elementary teachers come up with the best ways to learn. The connection to play is so important. This week I saw two great resources, one on Connected Play Centers- embedding character traits, which connected so nicely with their presentation on MLK - Character Trait Study, using stories to make this important connection. I love the way these teachers think and their creative ideas. They also take so much of the work out of a project by including the links, the videos, but spark ideas that let you incorporate your own materials.
Check out the Connected Play Center's updated play board here:
Check out MLK Character Traits here:
Ideas to Share
I often get asked about using Google Read and Write for Chrome. It is a pretty amazing tool set, which is often underutilized. Texthelp continues to add more and more features. This, although helpful, can put folks off. I remember the first time I saw the Kurtzweil dashboard- pretty much made me walk away. Student and teacher time is precious. Things need to work with no fuss, and no one really has a lot of time for a steep learning curve. So- Check out the training Texthelp offers online. You can spend less than an hour and get a lot of the basic skills, or just watch a 3 minute video to help you figure out one tool. Remember- use the Chrome browser- log into your school account. Teachers get all the features free, students get a free trial, or if you get lucky, your district can get a great deal and include everyone. Here's the basic training link . Here's the Resources link. Scroll down and check this one out. There's a whole series of resource material for ELL students, including this handy PDF. Need a quick video to learn a tool? Check out their YouTube channel.
Critical Thinking
Edutopia has a nice article called, " Preparing Social Studies Students to Think Critically in the Modern World", which can give you ideas about using primary sources. Check, Please! is geared for older students, but I think high school students or any teacher could pick up a few pointers. Here's their info: "In this course, we show you how to fact and source-check in five easy lessons, taking about 30 minutes apiece. The entire online curriculum is two and a half to three hours and is suitable homework for the first week of a college-level module on disinformation or online information literacy, or the first few weeks of a course if assigned with other discipline-focused homework."
To Share with Parents
The UK has a great organization called National Online Safety, which puts out a weekly post/pdf around various topics that parents, and teachers, should stay informed about. A recent one was on TikTok, but check out all of their free, downloadable resources here. Sandbox LearningThis article from TeachThought caught my eye recently. For those who know me, I often choose to do a "sandbox" day when introducing a new tool. I know that I learn best by hearing about something, watching someone/a video, and then messing with it myself. I need the verbal, the visual and kinesthetic modes to really get a handle on most of the digital tools and all of the physical tools. Although the article spoke to gaming and video games, like Minecraft, where the object is to build something, it also spoke to the need to "do stuff", "make stuff", to create. The digital tools I use every day stick in my head, the ones I use sporadically, I have to look up every time. The physical tools I use every day present no challenges,but new tools often take me a while and some "sandbox" time to get used to. Fellow teachers and I were watching students cut paper circles last week as part of a project and could not believe how hard it was for them. They apparently never have to use scissors. Last year I watched a student attempt to use a hammer to screw in a screw. If you have ever seen me try to use a sewing machine, you know, some of us just need more direction and practice. Thus, Sandbox Learning=hands-on, engaged, minds-on learning. It works. It brings out our strengths, allows us to learn and work through our weaknesses. Is this the way to learn everything? Probably not. I know how much I have hated being tossed into a project with no help. Sandbox learning can be structured, with scaffolded support as needed, but wide open enough to challenge to encourage. Lock-step, teach-to-the-test may give students high test scores, but are they learning? Media LiteracyI'm quite sure that as we head into election season here in the US, the "disinformation" in the media will only get worse. Commonsense Media is an excellent resource for educators. Their News and Media Literacy Resource Center has a wealth of material to use. I love the Sift, the News Literacy Project's newsletter for educators. If you haven't seen it, check it out here. Did you know about the upcoming first National News Literacy Week, Jan. 27-31 ? The goal is to raise awareness of news literacy as a fundamental life skill. Read more about it here. I also didn't realize, and have not checked out their new app Informable. "The app, which is free, is designed to improve users’ ability to identify different types of news and other information." This is also an interesting site that I was introduced to recently- allsides.com . What are you using for media literacy resources ? Ideas to Share
MathShare
This is a new one to me. Mathshare. I just got a promo from Benetech, the same folks who put Bookshare together. I asked about it in one of the listservs I follow and one person had played around with a bit, but not very much feedback so far. Check out the video below and let us know how it worked with your students.
Here's the blurb: " Mathshare is a free problem-solving tool that makes learning math easier. With Mathshare, students can solve problems step-by-step and explain their reasoning with a note. This helps students stay focused and shows teachers how they got their answers. Mathshare is free for teachers and students.How Mathshare Helps Students Many students struggle with learning math. Some need help staying organized, some have trouble with legible handwriting, and others may have learning differences like dyscalculia or dysgraphia. For all students who want to learn math, Mathshare makes it easier to learn and helps build positive math experiences. Key benefits:
Lots of Advent Calendar Style Lists
My task list keeps filling up with stuff that I might do, given time. Lots of ideas that folks are sharing, mostly in an advent calendar style.
Aaron Maurer started out my list of lists with his 25 days of Making Challenge. These are lots of fun to try, by yourself or with your students. You can check out Aaron's 25 Days of Making Challenge here.
#CreateWithChrome- a Google Slide Based Advent Calendar with teachers sharing project ideas. I think the original creators are Brian Briggs @bribriggs and Ryan O'Donnell
@creativeedtech. Check it out here and add your own ideas!
Shelly Sanchez Terrell (@ShellTerrell) shared a wonderful 25 Days of STEM calendar on her Teacher Reboot Camp site. So many ideas to explore! Thanks Shelly!
Need more Media Literacy Ideas?
I hadn't seen this site before, AllSides.
I had used FactCheck in the past, and of course Snopes, but this one is different. They also have an AllSides for Schools, but realistically, reading their TOS, very few of our kids qualify to use it on their own; " you represent that you are of legal age to form a binding contract", although it says it is for middle school through college. Perhaps the best use would be as a teaching tool with younger kids. Here's how they describe the site. "AllSides strengthens our democracy with balanced news, diverse perspectives, and real conversation.We expose people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world — and each other. Our balanced news coverage, media bias ratings, civil dialogue opportunities, and technology platform are available for everyone and can be integrated by schools, nonprofits, media companies, and more."
If you haven't followed Eli Pariser and his work on filter bubbles and algorithms, check out his original TED talk or his talk about algorithms from last December(2018).
There was an article in Forbes this summer by Kalev Leetaru which reiterated that "Fake News" is not a technology problem, but a societal problem. The gist of the article was,
"To truly solve the issue of “fake news” we must blend technological assistance with teaching our citizens to be literate consumers of the world around them.Societies must teach their children from a young age how to perform research, understand sourcing, triangulate information, triage contested narratives and recognize the importance of where information comes from, not just what it says. In short, we must teach all of our citizens how to be researchers and scientists when it comes to consuming information. Most importantly, we must emphasize verification and validation over virality and velocity." Sadly, this is not news. Media Literacy Week
This week is Media Literacy Week in the U.S. October 24-31st is Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2019
What is it? Why is it important? From Wikipedia: Media literacy encompasses the practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate, and create media. Media literacy is not restricted to one medium. Wikipedia These stats are from 2 years ago- and I'm quite sure that they are worse today. At a time when misinformation and fake news spread like wildfire online, the critical need for media literacy education has never been more pronounced. The evidence is in the data:
GMail- Basics
When I saw this post by my old friend Wes Fryer, I knew I would have to share it with you. I first met Wes back in 2007 or maybe 2008 at NECC, now ISTE, spoke with him on most Saturdays on the Classroom 2.0 Live series for years and I have continued to follow his work online ever since. Wes is currently the Technology Integration and Innovation Specialist and Digital Literacy teacher at Casady School in Oklahoma City. This link is to an excellent post that Wes originally created to help teach his 5th and 6th graders. Great ideas for one and all. Click on the link or on the photo below. Thanks, Wes!
More Googley Stuff
When I first looked at my list of things to share this week, it seemed that 90% of them were ideas using something Googley. Easy to use, versatile. Check out some of the wonderful ideas folks have shared recently.
Social Studies Links
I shared some of these links over the summer with a few teachers, but they are worth repeating/adding to.
A wonderful friend and talented NYC teacher, Kate Meyer, introduced me to the 1619 podcast. This link will bring you to all the available podcasts. This is the main link to the trailer. Below are some videos to tell you even more.
50 States
Can you identify each state by one photo? Fun quiz for all ages. Studying the 50 states? Regions? Or just for fun. Check it out here.
Free Primary Sources from the LOC
We had an interesting social studies PD with Laurie Risler recently, focused mainly on teaching students to differentiate between primary and secondary sources. Laurie also mentioned this collection from the LOC- free ibooks. I downloaded several of them, but have yet to figure out how to distribute them on a set of ipads via Apple School Manager and Jamf, without having to log into each one with an apple id. If you know the magic, please leave some directions in the comments or email me.
East of the Rockies- AR app plus Learner Kit
This is aimed at high school age students- 12-17. It is an AR app (the cost is either 1.99 or 3.99- I've seen both.) Here's the synopsis: "The East of the Rockies app is an experiential augmented reality (AR) story written by Joy Kogawa, one of Canada’s most acclaimed and celebrated literary figures. The story is told from the perspective of Yuki, a 17-year-old girl forced from her home and made to live in the Slocan internment camp during the Second World War. As Yuki and her family adjust to their new reality inside the camp, they struggle to make life as normal as possible" The author, 84 years old, is a former internee at one of B.C.’s Japanese Canadian Internment Camps.
Disinformation Game
Richard Byrne recently shared a couple of links to two versions of a game called Bad News, used to teach students how to recognize disinformation. One is for older students, one for younger. It looks like a fun way to work on these skills that we all need every day. You can check out his post here.
Links to ShareEL Tech Tools is a google site filled with ideas, especially for EL teachers and their students. Created by Kelly Martin and Josh Harris for an ISTE presentation, you will find a solid selection of tools, nicely sorted into categories.
|
AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
|