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!
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Do More with Google Classroom
Matt Miller is a rockstar educator who freely shares so much every week. This compilation of Google Classroom resources, all in one place is amazing. Check it out here. Pretty soon he will have another book out. But, do sign up for his mailing list and get ready to use great tips and strategies delivered to your inbox and get free ebooks
PearDeck vs NearPod
OK, I get a lot of questions about these 2 applications. Which is better/ What are the similarities and differences? Which one should I use? Is it worth it to get the premium version? So... I found a spreadsheet from TCEA that compares the two. Here you go.
Honestly, you do not have to choose. Our district went with the premium version of PearDeck. That does not mean that you cannot use NearPod. There are some really cool features of NearPod. Check them out- compare for yourself... but don't feel like it has to be one or the other. Google Slides Trick
I saw this tweet the other day and saved it, but then realized that I didn't really get it. Lucky for me, a whole bunch of other teachers needed clarification as well. Check outcomments on the tweet and watch the video explanation as well.
Stuck on Fractions?
I have no idea why, but all of a sudden, I have a ton of teaching fractions resources saved. So here you go...
MathCurious made a slide with Fractions favorites from PhET
Looking for more Jamboard Ideas?
Julia Dweck has amazing ideas that she freely shares on her Twitter account.
Or even more from Candace Buchanan candyTechIdeas
Handy Bookmarklet
"This bookmarklet installs a javascript code to your bookmarks bar that will allow you to go fullscreen while in editing mode in Google Slides.
This allows you to move objects and add text while presenting the slides to your students whether through a Meet or in-person on a projector. " Learn more about it here. Turn Docs into Quizzes and Flashcards
Richard Byrne shared new information about Knowt teacher platform to turn documents into quizzes and flashcards the other day. I didn't know that this was possible. Check out his blog post and the video below.
25 Days of Making is coming
Aaron Maurer is once again doing maker projects for 25 days this year. Check it out here. Lots of great ideas; many that the kids can do at home with found/free materials.
Looking for more great FREE PD?
If you've always wanted to attend FETC, but never had the chance, it's your lucky year. FETC is virtual this year- and it's FREE. Sign up today to have 4 full days of great PD- for FREE!
Still trying to convert paper to digital?
Texthelp can help... Click the link to read more, or if you have math worksheets- you can use Equatio- see the video below. We have subscriptions- for the district, including HA and HES. Try it!
Google sunsetting Tour Creator and ExpeditionsMany of you probably got the email from Google stating that they are retiring Google Tour Creator and Google Expeditions this summer. These are great tools to use, but rather than be sad about the sunsetting of them, Donnie Piercey created this nice tutorial to show you how to do something very similar in PearDeck. Check it out. Wizer AddonFor those who are using Wizer.me for pdf annotation, you may have already seen this, but Wizer just added a Google Drive add-on that lets you quickly convert PDFs that are in your Google Drive into online worksheets on Wizer. Richard Byrne of FreeTech4Teachers explains it all here. Looking for new dramatic ways to present science topics? Check out Frank Gregorio's YouTube channel. "This channel is dedicated to providing teachers and students a powerful new resource to combat student apathy. Here, you will find dramatic, visually stunning video "trailers" in the natural sciences choreographed to powerful music, designed to motivate and inspire students at the beginning of a lesson to the wonders of Biology, Earth Sciences, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Environmental Science and Math. Over 90 million students and teachers worldwide have seen these videos to date, and their comments highlight their exceptional value to education. " Free Stories and EbooksThis was a new resource for me- Clarkness.com. It is a site with tons of free stories and free ebooks for the beginning reader. There are 1,519 online stories, 117 ebooks and 64 personalized stories available. A similar site: Reading Hawk Library also has free downloadable ebooks and Dolch sight word story collections for the beginning reader, offering 4 ebooks, and 45 story collections. Another incredible teacher created resource for free read alouds is Mrs. Lemansky's Library. Check it out here. These are accessible via Google Slides. She has even more on her YouTube channel. FlipGrid ARHave you explored AR in Flipgrid with your students yet? Try it out with this free offer to make Thanksgiving "REALI-Turkeys" Help your students focus on things they can be thankful for with this fun writing activity. Flipgrid "REALITurkeys" gives students the chance to showcase their voice through the fun of Flipgrid's augmented reality. Simple write, record and then batch download student AR codes from the educator dashboard. Cut, paste and hang to share! Grab the free template here! How do you create FlipgridAR videos? Resources from PBS Learning MediaPBS always offers quality programming and great resources for educators. Have you seen the Learn Along Bingo packets? The Teacher Planning Kits? If not, check them out here.
Need more Turkey?Maytal, over at CreateCodeLoad is offering a free Scratch game, along with complete directions, even videos to help you and your class create a Thanksgiving turkey game in Scratch. Check it out here.
This week I will simply share a few of the resources that have come across my email, twitter, and various pln groups. A couple tools that stood out this week, Pear Deck and using Google Slides to create various games for students. I've also been seeing lots of choice boards, and have included some for math. The lists of "stuff" are, as always, overwhelming.
Don't miss out on Netflix documentaries- now available in "your classroom"!
Here's the info: "For many years, Netflix has allowed teachers to screen documentaries in their classrooms... However, this isn’t possible with schools closed. So at their request, we have made a selection of our documentary features and series available on ourYouTube channel. If you are a parent or teacher, please check the ratings so that you can make informed choices for your students and children. For more information and to download accompanying educational resources please visit the Netflix Company Blog."
One email that did attract my notice was from the UK, a weekly update on keeping kids safe online. I guess this should have been on my radar as we are asking kids to spend more time on screens, but there is a definite uptick in accounts of predators on the various sites that kids have been using more now for socializing. We are often asking kids to post video responses, but many kids, at least in the surveys I saw, are not supervised and are sharing personal videos online, talking with strangers, etc. The esafety advisor also shared links to ThinkUKnow activities for students. These are UK based, but applicable here as well.
Creating your own games? There are lots of ways to do this. Richard Byrne offers 3 ways, in addition to MIT App Inventor to create sorting and matching games in his recent blog post. I think my favorite is Educandy which has recently added a memory game template that you can use by providing a list of words or terms. Check out some of the other options he mentions in his blog as well.
Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning demonstrated some great ideas for creating Drag and Drop Games in Google Slides. You can listen to thepodcast here, or watch the video below to learn how. The steps are also written out on her podcast/blog page.
New to Google Classroom?
The To-Do List I wasn't going to include this one, but then realized that with everything else that you have going on , you may not know that it is there. Check out theshort blog post and share with your students if you are just starting out in Google Classroom.
Math Choice Boards
Living Maths has posted 2 versions of each grade band. Make sure you go to File>Make a Copy and DO NOT request access.
https://bit.ly/MathChoiceBoardsK-2 https://bit.ly/ChoiceBoards3-5 https://bit.ly/MathChoiceBoards6-8
More K-5 Math Choice Boards
Laura Rogers K-5 Click here Rob Baier from Pennsylvania made:Math Choice Boards K-8! Here is the Crosswalk Document so you can see which CCSS standards these match up with: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WMVie3DAhf71Wq5Km-HWKUeD9OMI7-qb/view
Problem of the Day
Illustrative Math https://tasks.illustrativemathematics.org/content-standards YouCubed https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/ NRich https://nrich.maths.org/11993 Dr Paul Swan https://drpaulswan.com.au/teaching-at-home/
Manipulatives and More
I was used to using VM for virtual manipulatives, but have seen a lot of posts lately that mentioned Toy Theater. This is a treasure trove of manipulatives, games and so much more. Check it out. If you need printables visit https://classplayground.com/category/math/ This is just a screenshot of some, not all, of the vitural manipulative available. |
AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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