Choose Your Own Adventure
With the new Black Mirror: Bandersnatch getting rave reviews, (So I hear: no TV reception where I live & no broadband to stream anything) I thought that it sounded an awful lot like "Choose Your Own Adventure". Since many of your younger students have probably never made their own choose your own adventure story, it seemed a good time to review what is out there to do this.
Sylvia Duckworth has an excellent presentation on using Google Slides to create your story. You can access her work here. Sylvia has built a wonderful set of resources; check out her web site for more. Alice Keeler has directions for this as well. If you're looking for a Dragon Quest, try following Eric Curts' directions here.
Another option is to use a Google Story Speaker add-on. This is fun, gives you a template to start with. The caveat- you need to have a Google Home device. Google Forms is a great option to try. Justin Birckbichler shared a template to do this with his class. You should check out his blog post for the whole story. Sylvia also has agoogle doc with step by step directions for this type of story. Wes Fryer worked with teachers on this at a VT workshop. You can get the templates and a lot more information on his blog post. New ToolsSteve Wick sent out a 12 Days of Techmas to occupy all of your spare time over the holidays. If you didn't get a chance to check it out: Here's the link I finally watched all the new Ditch Summit videos. I liked most of them, but I learned the most from Tony Vincent's presentation. If you missed it- maybe Matt will put it up again next year, but thepdf with his links is still online. He has lots of great, really practical ideas you can use. My favorite links: Draw your own Illustrations, and somewhat a complementary resource to the Noun Project was the link he shared- Visuals for Foreign Language. Jen Giffen produced a series of sketchnotes to go along with the Ditch Summit. You can see themhere. Full resolution available here. But here's the one from Tony's presentation, since it was my fav. Thanks for sharing your work Jen @VirtualGiff! New Resources Available
Random Video
Not really random... this was shared with me recently by a friend as we talked about immigration. I found it really interesting, maybe you will too.
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"Ear-Reading"Hmmm... Who calls listening to a book ear-reading ? At any rate, several articles have appeared in the last couple of weeks about the use of audio books. Is it cheating? How does it help students or does it help only some students? I never listened to books as I drove myself and my children and their friends back and forth to school every day (50 minutes each way). I trained myself not to listen to anything in the car- sanity while driving middle school age children was a priority. Now I listen to books pretty much constantly- on the way to and from work, while I'm working outside, weeding, mowing, shoveling snow... I consider it reading. I read about 300 books a year, more than half are audio books. Is listening to a book cheating? Well, are you working on decoding or comprehension? If you want your students to understand the material, let them listen to it, look at it, watch videos, etc... The only caveat I have is that videos are generally not true to the book and you lose the language, the flow that the author intended. In the past I have used the uPAR test with students and found that the vast majority of students- something like 87%, demonstrated significantly better comprehension- up more than a grade level- when they also got to listen to the text being read. UDL works. Both Edutopia and The New York Times have really interesting articles about this- check them out. Master FlipGrid!If you hadn't noticed, I really like FlipGrid. Since the acquisition by Microsoft, many things have changed, aside from it becoming a free resource. It seems like hardly a week goes back without something new- and it's usually good. I was so happy to see that Holly Clark is giving a FREE course, beginning this Friday to help you #Master FlipGrid! You can sign up here. TEDTED talks have teamed up with Brightline Initiatives to offer 21 Days of Ideas. Check it out Live from the North PoleGoogle has been tracking Santa for 15 years now. Check out what's new up at the North Pole. Chrome Extensions-TabsThere are books about chrome extensions. I just want to talk about a couple of them. I have used One Tab and Speed Dial2 for years and really like them. Recently I noticed that a similar extension Toby, has also been included in many favorites lists. I downloaded and installed it, but really haven't put it to a test. Perhaps one of you can let me know what you think. One Tab is incredibly useful to me, especially when I am listening to a webinar and popping 20 or 30 tabs open as I listen. Not only does this suck the life out of my computer and slow it down, but it has caused Chrome to crash and then I lose all my open tabs. One Tab to the rescue. I can have a ton of tabs open, press One Tab and it scoots them all into one tab, lets me label it, share it out as a web page, etc. It supposedly works across devices- but I end up with different lists on my different devices. Here's a quick screenshot of what this looks like. I use Speed Dial 2 as my start page. I have 3 tabs- one for sites I use at home, one for sites I use for work and one for sites I used for course work. I use this extension constantly. I have it set to be the tab that opens when I click on a new tab. Here's an example of this one. So what does Toby do? Supposedly a little bit of both. "Toby is better than bookmarks, it's a browser extension that helps you organize your tabs on every new page." It sets itself up as the new tab page automatically. (I had to undo that in settings, since I really like SpeedDial2). It puts all the tabs you open in a list on the right and then you make collections- pulling the tabs in - so kind of like One Tab, but it's supposed to be a great way to organize. Reading through the comments on the Chrome Web Store, it sounds like it meets the needs of some folks perfectly and others wish there was an import/export and other features. The jury is still out for me, but I will try it and see if I want to add Toby to my toolbox or replace a tool with this one. Hour of CodeThis week most of my time and energy has gone into going through some of the new features on Code.org and a few of the many third party educator resources. This is such an amazing resource, and so much of it is free. This year I decided to change up the offerings for grades 4-6 and use the time to introduce microbits. Across the board, the students did a great job. We'll have to look at investing in more of these, as well as more peripherals- sensors, servos, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing what these students can create. K-2 students worked on the iPads with challenges in Scratch Jr and Kodable. Third graders were the first class to try out the new Dance Party. It was an exercise in close reading; those pesky directions! All of this from Day 1... Here's the link to this year's HES Hour of Code site. Google Expeditions GuideI've written about Google Expeditions before, but Nick LaFave has created an excellent guide that you may be interested in. You do not have to have fancy glasses or viewers to see these. This statement was important to me: "No Fancy Equipment Required Originally designed for viewing with a virtual reality headset (or Google Cardboard and a phone), expeditions now work on any mobile device (iPad, tablet, smartphone); just click “View Full Screen” when you open the expedition." Check out Nick's guide here. He also has a great detailed spreadsheet with a searchable list of all available expeditions. Holiday BreakoutsAdam Bellow posted a link today to showcase the Holiday Breakouts that are available on the platform. It made me realize that I haven't done any breakouts at HES so far this year. We'll have to pick a couple to try. Insight Mission ActivitiesWow! How exciting! A new Mars landing! These are just a few of the resources available to teach students K-12 about Mars, about coding and creating. My friend, Adriano CyberParra Parracciani, one of the original members of the Global Educator's group, created this template in Scratch for you and your students to try. JPL has a very detailed project, again using Scratch, with various tasks to complete. You can check out that one here. You can find some great NGSS aligned K-12 lessons about Mars here. And of course the NASA Journey of a Lifetime Resources are here. Looking for PD?Well, I can't make to a teeny percentage of all the wonderful conferences offered. Luckily some share their resources online. VSTE, down in Virginia, just finished up and shared these sessions. I will have take notes on this one: 10 Things to do When the Wi-Fi goes Wonky Don't forget about the 12 Days of PD from The Birdville ISD down in Texas https://sites.google.com/g.birdvilleschools.net/12daysummit/home Ditch Summit is coming soon! This is where you get your ticket. It's free.
"The Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit is a FREE virtual event from December 14-31. It brings together some of the brightest minds in education to discuss technology, pedagogy and more." Multiple Google Accounts?This week a teacher asked me about the logins on Google accounts. Since most of us have at least two logins- school and personal, it's important to know and to control which account you are in. I noticed this just last week as I created a doc in my personal account and then shared- unsuccessfully- to students, who cannot share/view out of district docs. I have used the directions Kasey Bell shared a few years back. Alice Keeler also has a really nice step by step. My extensions are different on different accounts. You can also change your backgrounds, etc- to make it much more apparent to you. Check out Kasey's how-to video below- or if you like written directions to follow- go to Alice's blog. Advice from AustinI get Austin Kleon's weekly newsletter. Admittedly, I skim it, rarely reading the whole thing. But, this past week, I actually spent time on and enjoyed his post "We are verbs, not nouns". Go ahead. Read a short article. Less than 5 minutes. You'll like it. Cool ToolsThe tools that caught my eye this week, include physics simulations, digital math and a really nice article about using Book Creator and Adobe Spark.
3. KQED had a really nice article featuring Holly Clark and Tanya Avrith: How To Use Chromebooks For Powerful Creation in School. Great examples of both tools. Need more PD?Did you miss EdTech Team's ANZ Summit last weekend. Have no fear- it's available on YouTube. Check out the line- up here. Here's the blurb, "Introducing the theme CREATE, we’re mixing it up to unveil new and ever-evolving content on the most relevant topics and learning principles in the classroom today, including mindfulness, accessibility, creativity and personalized learning. Expect engaging sessions covering everything from Creating with Chromebooks to Creating Real World Problem Solvers and Teacher Leaders." The Birdville ISD down in Texas is hosting a 12 Days of Innovation Summit. Tony Hylander posted about this on the Future Ready Instructional Coaches group. Sign up is FREE! You will get an inspirational video via email each day. Our featured speakers include Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook & Google Teacher Tribe), Damen Lopez (No Excuses University), Sean Gaillard (The Pepper Effect), and more! For each video you will have the opportunity to reflect and earn a certificate of professional learning. Sign up today! https://sites.google.com/g.birdvilleschools.net/12daysummit/home WMass Scratch MeetupI'll just repost their announcement here. If you have never tried Scratch, if you are a Scratch expert...all are welcome. Especially with the upcoming release in January of Scratch 3.0- Perfect Timing!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1897230950372592/ "Calling all educators, K-12 teachers, out-of-school leaders, tinkerers, and makers. We've got tech prizes, Scratch 3.0 updates, and a great learning community for you to join at the upcoming Meetup. And...we will be joined by a leader from the ScratchEd team at Harvard. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from the ScratchEd team first hand and share tips, tricks and questions in real time! Scratch Meetups are designed like an unconference. We will build the agenda together and dig into topics that you want to learn about. Join us for a unique learning opportunity. Share your Scratch experience, meet new colleagues, and stay for dinner. If you are a seasoned teacher looking to learn new Scratch tips and tools, or someone recently inspired to learn about Scratch, this is the learning opportunity for you. Certificates of participation will be available for teachers who need documentation. Feel free to bring friends! RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/ScratchEd-WMass/" 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 NewsletterABC Mouse
I was really curious to learn about some of the edtech tools Brandee Ramirez is using and enjoyed listening to her presentation: “Creating the Perfect BLT: Balanced Literacy and Technology. Brandee, an instructional coach at TUSD gave an interesting presentation to Classroom 2.0 Live, which you can see, along with a ton of other resources here. Along with going through TPACK and SAMR with some nice examples, she also highlighted some of the edtech tools that she is using in her schools. One of these, ABCMouse, was a surprise to me. I had seen the site, played with the app a bit, but thought that it was a premium service. Much to my surprise- it is totally free for teachers! You just have to click on the tiny "teacher" link to sign up. It seems to work much like Epic- teachers and their students can use it for free in school, and they try to market it to parents on a subscription basis. It has a nice selection for preK-2 and they are adding a couple more grade levels. Check it out, as well as some of Brandee's other resources in the livebinder.
Updated Google Expeditions
Google announced a great update to their free Expeditions app. Now students can take new augmented reality tours. The original list of tours is here, but I don't know if all of these will also be AR tours. There are hundreds of really cool places to check out. Simply print out the marker/trigger sheets and the AR content appears on the tablet/phone screen. One thing that I really like is that you don't have to use Google Cardboard or an AR viewer to use this app. You can still get much of the AR experience without the "stuff", which we simply don't have in elementary schools. You can read more about it here.
Animated Videos on Chromebooks
This is a post from Richard Byrne that I know I will be going back to. He lists 5 different websites to use to create animated videos on chromebooks, especially since the service we currently use- GoAnimate will be closing next year. Check out his great post with examples here.
Summer PD plans?
I know that everyone is incredibly busy finishing up their year, but what are you going to do this summer for PD? Kids, family, other jobs, breathing... all take precedence, but aside from working in my gardens, I use the summer to try to catch up on all the edtech "stuff" I missed or didn't have time to explore. This summer I will be going to the Raspberry Pi Academy in NJ in June, then July will be a week at the Pathfinders Makers Collective Bootcamp in Indianapolis and of course the Scratch conference at MIT. August brings the GooglePalooza in Huntington and EdcampCT down at the Ethel Walker School.
What do I want to learn? I want to learn how to get more buy-in/time allotted for the makerspace through connections to existing standards and curriculum- not as a special or add-on. I really would like to be able to use raspberry pi and not drive myself crazy with mistakes on the breadboard. Scratch is coming out with Scratch 3.0 this summer and it will be non-flash... so it will be usable across more devices and it will be integrated into more hands-on devices, like microbits. I really want to learn to use microbits in the classroom. The price is right, at ~ $15/each and there are more and more sensors and add-ons and you can even do all the coding online with a simulator. Oh, and I need to take the Makerbot 3D printer certification course. And I want to learn more about how to use Merge cubes in the classroom. That's my "short" list. Summer is such a great time to learn, to relax with friends and family and to refresh/re-ignite your passions for teaching/learning. If you're looking for edtech learning opportunities, check out KQED https://teach.kqed.org/ They are offering free media literacy courses. Want a more hands-on course- check the various tinkering courses from Exploratorium. Feeling like you want more Google in your life- check out the Applied Digital Skills. Want to learn more about the "Maker Movement" and how it could apply in your classroom, check A Year in the Making. If these lists don't inspire you and you actually need help finding some edtech PD, let me know. If your plan is to go to the beach and hang out with your grandkids or your own children, to travel to exotic places or to sleep in the hammock in your own back yard- Enjoy! You certainly deserve all the best! Summer Reading?
Looking for a book to read? I really liked the Google For Littles book and plan to pick up Chris Bugaj's The New Assistive Tech: Make Learning Awesome for All!. Out of all the books I had to read when I did my assistive tech degree- his first book was the best- funny, and actually useful.
If you're still on the fence about using Google Suite with younger students, check out Google Apps for Littles: Believe They Can by Alice Keeler and Christine Pinto. You will find creative, easy to use ideas to get you started.
Don't miss out on Voice Dream Reader
This is a great app, especially to support readers and is on sale thru 6/9 for half price.
Another call for Western Mass GooglePalooza
I got an email from Chris Parker asking to spread the word, so here's a repeat of last week's post:
Don't miss out on special pricing- only $45 thru June 30. A full day of PD and breakfast and lunch! I know I always end up driving for hours for PD- this one is just over the hill with some great presenters. Gateway Public Schools and MassCUE are looking forward to hosting its first ever Summer Googlepalooza on 8/8/18 in western MA. Register today for the special rate of $45 for a full day of learning and breakfast and lunch! (Regular registration rate of $65 will resume on 7/1/18.) Extra bonus: any educator who attends will be able to purchase a MassCUE membership for half-price. Hope to see you at the Summer Googlepalooza at Gateway Public Schools in Huntington, MA Teaching SDGsI got an excellent list of resources the other day and will just share the DM I received: THANK YOU for your ongoing support of our mission: to engage and empower every classroom on earth with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Many of you have asked for the best resources to help you get started. Here are our suggestions… and they’re all free!
If you would like to serve the @TeachSDGs movement even more effectively, consider turning on your notifications if you haven’t done so already. We are only as strong as you are active. Please continue to share and celebrate how you #TeachSDGs and, again, THANK YOU!! Wishing you a wonderful and well deserved summer break, The #TeachSDGs team http://www.teachsdgs.org Google SlidesThe amazing Alice Keeler has put together a great set of videos on how to get the most out of Google Slides. Check out her post here. Data LiteracyI was happy to catch Michelle Luhtala's webinar a week or so ago on Data and Data Literacy. I was kind of thinking that this was going to be more fake news kind of material, but she really took it in a different direction which I hadn't looked at in a while. Those of you who teach middle and high school social studies or science, probably know these sites, but if not- check them out. Even if you teach elementary students, some of the basics are also highlighted- check the scale of the graph, etc. I simply find Hans Rosling and his data visualizations to be pretty amazing. This site was new to me- Social Explorer. As you might expect-lots of maps and data visualization. There's also a youtube video to demonstrate how to add your own data. She also shared some of Mark Liddell's work on statistics.
The other two links that I really liked were Lea Gaslowitz' How to spot a misleading graph- which can easily be used across both grade levels and disciplines, and David McCandless' Information is Beautiful site. Check out his visualization of Snake Oil Supplements and so many more! Please check out Michelle's webinar recording on edweb.net or her Pearltrees links. If you have never explored Gapminder... check it out either link. I couldn't decide on my favorite Hans Rosling video... but put one below. The world certainly misses Hans, but we are so fortunate to have so many videos available to view and review. Googlepalooza in Western MassDon't miss out on special pricing- only $45 thru June 30. A full day of PD and breakfast and lunch! I know I always end up driving for hours for PD- this one is just over the hill with some great presenters.
Gateway Public Schools and MassCUE are looking forward to hosting its first ever Summer Googlepalooza on 8/8/18 in western MA. Register today for the special rate of $45 for a full day of learning and breakfast and lunch! (Regular registration rate of $65 will resume on 7/1/18.) Extra bonus: any educator who attends will be able to purchase a MassCUE membership for half-price. Hope to see you at the Summer Googlepalooza at Gateway Public Schools in Huntington, MA. Professional DevelopmentSeems like I'm always talking about PD. I used to love professional development. I enjoyed having choices, getting to learn about lots of things to improve my practice. Although I actually still enjoy PD, I now see the "dark side"- required professional development that someone else seems to think will improve my or other teachers' practice. We all know that some things are necessary for all to stay on top of, but so many PD sessions are so boring, that even if it's good material, I stopped listening a long time before they got to the "good part". I recently read an article by Dean Shareski, entitled Bad PD is Sometimes Your Own Fault. And yes, I agree that we can also substitute staff meeting for PD. I have met Dean, listened to him present at various conferences over the years and have a lot of respect for both the breadth and depth of his knowledge. However, he is looking at this from his perspective as a PD provider. I also agree with some of his statements about factors of time, community and context that are often problematic. But- they don't have to be! Here in Hadley it's a pretty darn small community. We can pay attention to context, to what the needs of our community are- if we take the time to listen to the teachers and staff. If we actually ask for and use their input, I think we could serve the "needs of the district" by meeting the needs of the teachers and students. Give them a voice and a choice, please. Along those same lines, I also read Keith Westman's article entitled, " I Can't Ask Our Teachers to Do One More Thing". Funny, since it seems like although I have heard that sentiment, I know that almost every teacher and staff member I know is asked to do one more thing on a regular basis. Again, we hear about voice and choice. We have all seen new initiatives come through the doors- on an annual basis. What makes them stick? Time, price-ROI, usefulness in the classroom? What role does the administration take in this? What is the role of the educator? What Makes a Good Teacher Great? This really resonated with me. Is it a love of teaching? A love of learning? Most of the best teachers I have had, teachers that I know, are people who listen, who love to learn and to share with others. They have a voice; they choose how to present the content. They have learned to listen. If we could take Azul's concluding statement and transfer it to teacher PD issues...teacher voice and choice- "And can you imagine if we took the time to ask those students, "What would make a good teacher great? And then we actually listened, we could transform schools and education. Google Tour Creator
When I saw the announcement last Wednesday that Google has created a really cool, easy to use tool to make VR tours right on a chromebook, I envisioned using it for a current 4th grade project on regions. Well, we're still waiting for it to roll out for our district. But, I do have access on my personal Google account and will keep checking the domain settings to see when it lands out heah. Essentially, you start here, then you go to Google Maps, street view (grab that little peg man and plop him where you want to look around), use the images found there or upload your own 360° images. So, I decided to test it out by looking around on the Kenai Peninsula where my son is doing some forestry work. Guess what- no roads= no Google street view- duh! But I did check out Yellowstone and found some good street view images there- although of course not everywhere I wanted to see.
But, if you want a couple of really good tutorials- turn to Richard Byrne's blog and learn more. I will put the 1st tutorial below, but he has another one to add even more detail. Check out his second tutorial here. Applied Digital SkillsI posted a video about this back in March, and although I signed up to try it out for Digital Skills Week, life intervened and I didn't get back to it. Since then, I have talked with other educators and some are using pieces of this all the way down to 3rd grade- or at least upper elementary. EdTechTeam hosted a couple of half hour webinars that you can check out on YouTube. There is so much to explore in this well organized system that is already made for you. I loved the clickable pdf that Heather Sanders made. If you have a few minutes, check out a tiny piece of the curriculum- theIf-Then adventure stories are great for all ages. Summer PD
I know- too early to even think about... let me get through the year... BUT I just wanted to let you know that MassCue is sponsoring yet another PD opportunity in Western Mass! This one will also be at Gateway- over in Huntington. Their IT director-Chris Parker- is a Hadley native and I have to say, having met him all of one time at #EdCampWesternMass - he's kind of awesome. Lots of ideas, runs a great program in his district. So- this will be in August. My all time favorite Google Guru to learn from- Jenn Judkins will be there. Honestly, I can sit in her sessions all day long and come away with something new every time. She actually uses these tools, has incredible work flow ideas, and she's funny. It's $65 for the whole day. I can pretty much guarantee that you will come away with ideas that you can use in the classroom, as an admin, etc. Check it out here.
AR/VR
Those of you who know me, know that Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality both make me feel seasick. I can be sitting down, I can hold a 3D image way out away from me, but I am the Dramamine queen. But, that does not mean that I don't see the value in this for some of our students. I have a whole box of Merge Cubes that I picked up when they were on sale at Walmart for $1/each, but haven't had the time to mess around with them. If you have time, stop by- I'll share. I love the Merge Cube educator group on FB. The ideas being shared every day are really amazing.
I was fortunate enough to catch Michael Fricano's webinar on Saturday. It went long- so you can watch the whole hour plus if you have time, or just check out the resources he shared in the Livebinder. He is also consolidating all of the AR/VR stuff into a nice new website- check it out here. SDGsI have written in the past about SDGs- Sustainable Development Goals, but before the school year ends, wanted to remind everyone that it is not too early to figure out what you'll be doing to help your students understand the concept and come up with real plans to achieve these goals. The video below is an invitation to do just that. Visit the project web site and learn more about it. Everyone can participate- preK on up... UDL: Great collection of Assistive Tech and OT sitesA friend posted a link to an excellent collection of sites for assistive tech and OT related strategies today. H/T to Leslie DiChiara for sharing these links! The one that I really enjoyed checking out was this one on speech recognition, but you are sure to find something of interest here. One thing that really stood out to me on Saturday when I attended EdCampAccessBoston was the continuing gap between "Our Kids" and "Their Kids" - between special educators and general educators. I know that everyone cares about all of their students. I know that everyone is busy. Sometimes we don't cover all the bases. Working together, truly working as a team- to provide what is best for all students is our goal, but it's hard sometimes! These links- all kids can benefit from many of these strategies- not just a student on an IEP or a 504 plan. Karen Janowski, one of my friends, one of my teachers, and an amazing educator shared a few websites during these sessions that, again, almost all students can benefit from. She showed teachers how to use Lit Charts, Insert Learning- (great blog post by Caitlin Tucker), and Common Lit. I hadn't seen Lit Charts- very cool site. Think Shmoop- but way better. The guys who created Spark Notes created this tool. Read more about it here: About LitCharts, or Why LitCharts are the Best Literature Guides on Earth
#MADPD 2018What is #MADPD?? It is "a virtual “unconference” with one goal: to make a difference for the greater education community. On May 6, 100 educators from across the globe shared one idea that makes a difference in their classrooms! It was actually pretty amazing, and the great thing- you can still access all of the presentations- free, on your own time schedule. How? By using the Awesome Table, of course. Here's the link: https://awesome-table.com/-LBnE8hn7NBBTPOjM2Qo/view There are 94 short presentations- bet there is something that interests you. Alice Keeler- Google Forms- Branching
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AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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