Many of the resources this week come from recent Twitter posts. Honestly, if you are an educator and you are not on Twitter, you don't know what you are missing. I remember when Twitter first came out and I could not see any use whatsoever for that "nonsense". But that was over 13 years ago! So much has changed since then. If all the political posts annoy you- don't follow those people! I understand that social media certainly has its negative aspects, but Twitter is the primary source of a wealth of information for all educators. There are now "Clubhouse Communities" for educators as well (not Twitter, but a relatively new platform). I know time is scarce, but aside from the few times when I still fall down the Twitter rabbit hole, it's doable.
Pick some educators to follow and see what you can learn. Make a time for this, once a day, once a week- just carve out 15 minutes. To help you out... here's a couple of tweets with lists of K-12 educators and a list of edu blogs to follow.
Google Apps for Primary Educators
I was fortunate to attend Thursday's Napa Learns presentation featuring Christine Pinto and Jessica Twomey. They gave a resource- packed hour with a plethora of tried and tested resources to use with younger learners. You need to check out their blog, as well as follow them on Twitter. They also have a new book out- check that out here. Here are 2 of the fabulous resources shared, Playing with Works Centers- 45 slides with 5 great resources ready to use or adapt on each; and Connected Play Centers, currently with 52 slides and 5 resources on each. Your planning is done for the rest of the year. Microsoft Reading Progress Tracker
I know I wrote about this last week, but I got to listen to Mike Tholfsen talk about this and demo it on Leslie Fisher's Friday night webinar. I love Google for education, but this makes me want to find a really good way to make this work for our Google Classroom students and their teachers. Mike says No, have to use Teams. I want to find a way to integrate this without adding another layer! It is the best Reading progress system I have seen. Check out the walk-through to see how it all works.
Ideas to Share
Amplify STEM is also offering some interesting webinars. Check it out here. http://go.info.amplify.com/getintouch-webinar-fy21_science_lhs_national_springwebinar
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Poetry Month This link comes from a Terri Eichholz post. I love the interactive google doc with lesson plans that she shared from Scott Bayer (@LyricalSwordz). With yet more unsettling news on the rise of hate and racism, here are some resources from KQED. Click here or on the image. WordtuneLooking for a new way to improve student writing? Try this Chrome extension- Wordtune. Eric Curts wrote up a great explanation on his site, and created this how to video, as well as detailed written instructions. I tried it out and like having a lot of choices, although, as with most of this type of tool, like Grammarly, I found that having it pop up to be intrusive and used the little dot in the top left to shut it off, unless I asked it for advice. I am curious to see how well the AI works. We all know that the auto-correct can be a godsend or make really funny mistakes. BreakoutEDU's free game of the week is Breakout THE ZOOM!
Math Whiteboard As many of you may know, math is not my favorite subject. This 30 min webinar on a new tool called Math Whiteboard honestly made the tool look really cool, but not being a math teacher, I don't know. He demo'd cool tricks with graphs, etc... made it look easy. He also seems to be available for questions and more demos. Try it and see! Let me know in the comments. Here's a couple of example images from his site. I just saw that Eric Curts is having a webinar on this next week 4/20/21 MakeCode Skill Map This one is in development, but go ahead and give it a shot if you don't mind that there may well be some bugs. I enjoyed the intro webinar and found most of it to be fun and easy to follow along. You can also check out the MakeCode Arcade platform, but this skillmap has potential as a teaching tool. One big plus- MakeCode Arcade has Immersive Reader! Canva If you haven't tried Canva, you're missing out. This platform has grown so much over the last year or so! I guess I'm not the only one who is so impressed with Canva. Richard Byrne just put up a new blog post 19 Canva Tutorials for Teachers and Students - Certificates, Comics, and More! Check out all the great tutorials he has created here. Here's a link to Canva's OnBoarding for Educator's presentation with step by step from setup to presenting remotely and more. Canva offers free pro accounts for educators! You can create classrooms. It is integrated with Google Classroom. Students can collaborate on work. The amount of resources available to teachers is simply amazing! Remove bg is part of the platform... You can find, reuse, recreate worksheets, comics, infographics and so much more. The Canva video below is a bit long, but worth the time. I have sat through several of Leslie Fisher's webinars on Canva and will be back for more. You can also check out Holly Clark's ideas here. I also took a couple of quick video tours ( less than a minute) below to show you some of what is available to teachers- for free!
Yet More Jamboard I attended a Fried.Tech webinar recently on Jamboard, not really expecting to learn anything new. Much of it was the same old, but I did learn more about the differences in using Jamboard on a tablet vs the web version (~ 11:28 on the video) There are some pretty cool things you can do with the app. Check out their presentation and slide deck. Just in from Eric Curts I thought I was done, but just saw this tweet from Eric. Now I have to go check out Monster Mash!
April is right around the corner and will be bringing us National Poetry Month. More about that next time, but, a friend shared this article with me about a new anthology of Native poetry, with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Check it out. I'm sure that with Amanda Gorman and poetry at the Super Bowl, we will have a lot to share in the upcoming weeks. Equity and Accessibility I tend to write about various tools for accessibility a lot as that was the biggest change for me when I flipped from private schools to public schools. I had never had kids with disabilities of any kind in my many years in private schools, either it wasn't a "good fit" or the kids had private tutors, so it did not impact my teaching. Then in the fall of 2013 I started working in a public school. I ended up taking a crash course- 36 credits in 16 months and an Ed.S later- now, I get it. This didn't even touch on equity issues relating to gender, race, digital access, etc... just physical and cognitive issues. I was thrilled to see the article and listen to the podcast that Katie Novak and Mirko Chardin did with Jennifer Gonzalez recently, called If Equity is a Priority, UDL is a Must Check out the article and podcast here: www.cultofpedagogy.com/udl-equity/ Katie and Mirko talk with Jennifer starting ~ 5 min in. More Accessibility Stuff
CAST presented a webinar today called : What It’s All About: Teaching, Learning and Assessment These frameworks are a work in progress. This is the slidedeck (ppt). The recording will post in the coming weeks. Torrey Trust et al, recently shared this really nice hyperdoc/choice board on the Foundations of the U.S. Political System. Please remember to make your own copy/ do not request edit access, and please credit the authors. Tall Tweets I highlighted Eric Curt's tutorial for Tall Tweets, back in 2018. Lately I have been seeing more and more folks using both Tall Tweets and the new version Studio Creator to quickly and easily create gifs and videos. Teachers have been assigning or offering this as an option... show mitosis as a gif, show the water cycle as a gif, etc. So, I added the new version, Creator Studio, the slides add-on, to our allowed marketplace add-ons. It has mixed reviews, so if you try it and want to share either your positive or negative experiences, let us know. It's an add-on, so go to slides, add-ons-get add-ons to find it. It looks like most of the features you may want to use may not be free. Ideas to Share
More Poetry Links I saw this one come up the day after I posted about National Poetry Month and knew that I really had to include it. Be sure to check out Kathleen Morris' blog post with a list of 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry month, a list of 15 great ideas you can use tomorrow and so much more. My favorites- a poem by our friend Kevin Hodgson over at the Norris School and a visual poetry mosaic tool. Richard Byrne also shared links about National Poetry month, using Poetry 180 . Check out his post here. I absolutely loved Tricia Fuglestad's work with second graders on Shel Silverstein's poem.
StoryboardThat InfographicsI was excited to read that StoryboardThat now has Infographic Templates for Education. Many of our HES students have used StoryboardThat to tell a story, as a book report, etc, but now, there's a new, easy to use feature- Infographics. One of the many things I like about StoryboardThat aside from their dedication to keeping our student info safe is their constant work to provide graphics to enhance learning. Here's the blurb from their site: "Creating an infographic is an easy way to showcase different information and topics in a digestible and visual format! They help students combine data, information, and visuals to further understanding and synthesis skills." Vimeo EssentialsWe have a Vimeo Plus account here at HES. One of the new bonuses with the Plus account is access to the Essentials collection- for free. So if you or your students are working on creating new videos and need some stock footage, check it out. See me if you need access credentials for this school account. Tinkercad 3D projectsAS we all learn more about using our 3D printer, I am always on the lookout for ideas to use the printing capabilities to integrate with and to extend our curriculum. Although it is tempting to just "go shopping" on Tinkercad or Thingiverse, I was happy to see some other examples on the We Are Print Lab click here . Here's one example: Ideas to Share
National Poetry Month
Yes, it's April and it's National Poetry Month. I wrote a long post on this last year, see this link. One new link to add is theListenwise Blog. They have an excellent selection of poetry and lesson plans. Best of all, you can listen to them! I had never explored this web site before and am really impressed with the breadth of the offerings across disciplines, including social studies, science, ELA and current events. If you're interested in hearing a new poem every day, be sure to check out the Poetry Foundation. NYPL is posting a new poem every day . You can find many more ideas on Twitter #NationalPoetryMonth.
Learning and Movement
Jennifer Gonzalez wrote an excellent blog post on learning and movement. I embedded her podcast below, but her actual blog post has real examples, links and a whole batch of great video examples. Don't miss this one! Some of her videos referenced TPR, which I had never heard of, as well as a web site that was new to me- Teacher ToolKit. So, after you finish listening to her podcast, and reading her great ideas on her blog, watching all the videos, you can go check out Teacher Toolkit, too.
Microbooks
Now this sounds like a really cool idea from Book Creator and Elevate Books Edu. Here's a short version: "âThey have a growing library of hard copy books that weâll be converting into microbooks â short, bite-size, multimedia versions that give a glimpse into the concepts contained within the book. This gives teachers an opportunity to sample the book before committing to a deeper dive into the full book."
â Read more about it in this month'sBook Creator newsletter, and check out an example below. ScreenTime
You know all those articles you've read arguing about screen time? How about all the ones about digital equity? Well, it seems that the latest thing is that the "elite" schools are moving away from screens and putting value on human contact. This has been a hot topic on the independent school list servs of late. I think it is just a pendulum swing myself. What do you think? Here's a recent NY Times article to get you thinking. Love the subtitle. Human Contact Is Now a Luxury Good Screens used to be for the elite. Now avoiding them is a status symbol.
Ideas to Share
Women's History Month
A friend posted a link to an article about women becoming invisible as they age, which really got me thinking more about this topic. You can check out theAtlantic article here. So, as educators, how can we make sure that all voices are heard? How can we encourage girls and young women in our classes? How can we highlight the contributions of women across history?
How many can you name?
This is a playlist- mostly from Google Edu... 28 videos, use arrows to navigate
Resources to check out:
Blackout PoetryI subscribe to Austin Kleon's weekly newsletter and enjoy reading about his latest adventures, poetry and even his random ramblings. One of the things that he is known for is blackout poetry. I saw examples of this being done in new ways last summer at Pathfinders. Colleen Graves has some great videos and labz to demonstrate how to use makeymakey and scratch to make interactive blackout poetry. So, what is this "blackout poetry" that you speak of? Here's Kleon's video:
Here's Colleen's example of an interactive way to do this.
Ideas to Share
Do Something!
Last week I wrote briefly, about some of the issues we all deal with in education. Apparently, I am not the only one feeling like there are some gaps, with an undue emphasis on acquiring and regurgitating information, instead of doing and learning. As a strong believer in UDL, I believe that we need to look at how we are teaching, how students are learning and how they are showing their mastery. Jennifer Gonzalez of The Cult of Pedagogy, blogged about this and created the podcast embedded below.
Modern Learners shared this viral video and responded to it in their post back in September. Check out the blog post for the video response to Prince Ea. What's your response? Mine has been to create the STEAM space at HES. Still a work in progress, students can come in and DO something.
Three Quick Shares
Add Math Playground to Google Classroom
Richard Byrnes wrote a great blog post about this back in September. I love Math Playground games. I've been a fan of Colleen King for years. She is an amazing educator, math wiz, web design and coding magician and a wicked nice, shy, unassuming person. She was my hero about 10 years ago as I was struggling to get through a workshop that was simply not working for me. I had no clue about what I was trying to do, coding stuff etc... and Colleen took me under her wing and very gently showed me how to do some basic things. She also allowed me to use her as a mentor for one of my former students when he wanted to learn flash and I didn't know it. But... back to Richard's post. He noticed that you can put Math Playground games right into Google Classroom and referenced Tony Vincent's post about how one could add materials. Check out Richard's post here and start adding more fun, educational Math Playground games to Google Classroom. If you've never tried the Logic games, be sure to check them out.
Eduprotocols
I've been hearing more and more about Eduprotocols for the last 6 months. The book, by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo came out in March and everything I have heard about it is wonderful. Hate to admit it, but I haven't purchased a copy yet. I tend to buy paper copies of edu books, so I can lend them to people. The trade-off is not being able to click on the links. Check out the videos below. The first big one is a review of the book. Vicki Davis did an interview with Jon and Matt Miller takes on one of the protocols in his video. It may be something that some of us can look at for a PD session. Interested? Check out some of the templates- for free. See if this would help you in the classroom.
Don't Miss the Latest FlipGrid Newsletter
I saw this on Edutopia's YouTube channel the other day. Can you even imagine how much time we could save if we were this efficient at meetings. Just a thought...
National Poetry Month
I saw some great links the other day for National Poetry Month on Terri Eichholz' blog, Engage Their Minds. You can check them out here. Makers.com partnered up with illustrator,Kimberly Joy, to bring you some beautiful illustrations to go with dynamic poetry from 6 gifted women. Of course Poets.org has a whole list of ways to celebrate poetry. If you haven't tried the Dear Poet project with your grade 5-12 students, check it out here. You can also find the links to download the new poster as well as the Poem in My Pocket resources. Watch/Listen to Alberto Rios read "Don't Go Into the Library".
Poetry in America premieres on public television stations nationwide this week. Check out a teaser for Episode 2.
Our local PBS affiliate WGBH, has some excellent lesson plans online for grades 6-12, including one of my favorites, Langston Hughes' Harlem.
Newsweek went a step further and published an article on space, evolution and dinosaur poetry. Check it out here. One of my favorite websites for poetry is The Poetry Foundation. I like the way they have things sorted out for you. Looking for lesson plans- Check out Read, Write, Think for more. Readworks also has an excellent selection and it is sorted by grade level.
NCTE has an article about using protest music lyrics to study poetry and civic engagement. Check it out here.
Locally, our friend Kevin Hodgson, over at Kevin's Meandering Mind, is working to pull together some of the small poems from the Networked Narratives daily prompts. Kevin is a 6th grade teacher and is an outreach co-director w/Western Mass Writing Project. You can read more of his work on his blog.
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AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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