This wasn't back to normal

This wasn’t the year I had hoped for-and perhaps not the one you had hoped for as well.  Here is a reflection video from Trevor Muir - author of The Epic Classroom  (shared by Stephanie Howell in one of my  Google groups).  After you watch- take a minute to reflect on your own school year. What do you know?

Lumio for Next Year

One of the things I like about this part of the year is looking ahead to next year.  I always found May-June an ideal time to try new things for next year.  You might want to consider thinking about Lumio.  In her description here, Monica Burns explains its features and shares a link a to free getting started webinar. While it is related to SMARTnotebook, you do not need a SMARTBoard to use it.  It allows students to complete interactives without all waiting for a turn at the SMARTBoard.

Breaking the Blockbuster Model

Matt Miller (Ditch that Textbook) is hosting a 4 part series (it ends this month).  New videos are added on Tuesday and Thursday.  Here’s the link to all the short videos (the last one will be added in late May) The movie theater model (the first video) is embedded above.

Science podcast for educators

Amplify has launched Science Connections- a series of podcasts related to the science classroom. In these half-hour sessions, you will find a variety of classroom ideas (integrating coding,  implementing literacy skills, working with families).

Helping Students Succeed

One way to can help our students to succeed is to encourage (and facilitate) time management skills.  In this blog post (from Edutopia), Emma Chiappetta shares her tips to implement goal setting in the classroom.

Student Choice

Jame Fester (writing in Edutopia) shared a brief article on fostering student choice.  I liked his example of learning at museums.  How could free-choice learning work in your classroom?

PBS and Mental Health

PBS has shared a variety of resources for student mental health.  Divided by grade level, you will find material on bullying, suicide prevention, and belly breaths!

New Math Podcast

If you teach math, you might be interested in a new Math podcast series sponsored by Amplify. Geared to the K-12 math educator, it focuses on current classroom topics.  The last podcast discussed building fluency in mathematics.  Each session is about 40 minutes. You can find current and past podcasts at the Math Teachers Lounge (here is the site)

A New View of a Church in Milan

Google cameras seem to be everywhere and now they have produced a magnificent virtual tour of the Milan Cathedral.  I really liked this site (and it could be that I'm watching Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy and I watched the Milan episode last night!). Please click here to see their work and visit Milan Cathedral Remixed.  From touring the terraces to exploring the crypt, you will get an appreciation for the art and architecture of the third-largest church in the world.

More on Google's Drop-down Feature

 Here’s another update on the Insert Drop-Down feature in Google.  This video (from Kasey Bell in Shake Up Learning). You can get a quick demonstration as well as some implementation suggestions.

Create your own Cloze Activity in Google Docs

Google has recently added a new feature (they call them chips) that lets you create you own Cloze reading activity.  You know the one- you read along and then you need to select the correct word from a drop-down list.   Eric Curts shared this tutorial on his blog. Click here to make your own copy of my sample and try it.

TeachersFirst Summer Book Club

Looking for a creative professional  opportunity this summer?  Consider joining the

TeachersFirst Book Club.I’ve done several in the past and found them enlightening.  The theme this summer

is Encouraging Empathy through Critical Thinking with Literature. The club starts

in early July and concludes by mid-August.

The book club includes two webinars as well as weekly responses and online discussions.  There is flexibility in how you complete the assignments. There are a few required assignments as well as optional activities.  There are three book choices this summer (depending on your grade level band).  You will earn PD hours for successful completion of the club.  If you have questions, I would be glad to chat!

NYT Learning Network

The New York Times publishes a Learning Network newsletter weekly.  It is filled with current topics and lesson ideas.  Here is this week’s email. The picture prompts and the vocabulary resources are my favorites.

Not all the great pyramids are in Egypt

Explore the pyramids of Meroe in Sudan. This article provides the link for the Google Arts and Culture tour. Never been there?  Check out this video above for a preview!

Google Art and Culture

Looking for ready-to-use lessons and materials?  Check out Google Arts and Culture,  There are always new resources and implementation suggestions.  Get started here.

Discussion Tools

Matt Miller recently shared several resources to help develop deep discussions in your classroom.  Please see his blog post here.  I’m sure you find some ideas to try this year.

A little praise at the right time

Student behaviors have been on my mind recently and I found this article  (from Angela Duckworth at  Education Week) to be interesting.  This was private praise (and wouldn’t violate responsive classroom tenants).  Would you have responded the same as the taxi driver?

Matt Miller End of the Year Templates

While it is always a good time to reflect, this time of the year seems to plead for it.  In his blog post, Matt Miller shares a variety of options. Check out the options and see which one would work best for your students. Number 3 (My Learning Awards) and Number 7 (Reflecting on my learning) were my favorites.

Why should you use comics?

In this blog post from Monica Burns, she shared 5 reasons for using comic creation tools in class.  While there are several free sites, our district does have a subscription for Storyboardthat (my favorite).  See your media specialist for the details.

Minecraft and Discovery Education

Discovery Education now has Minecraft Education Edition resources.  Please click here to read their press release.  To access, log into your Discovery Education account and enter Minecraft in the search bar. You can then access the Minecraft Channel

You will find a wide variety of lesson plans and resources!

Help your students read

Here is a resource page from TeachersFirst will ideas to related social studies to reading selections.  You can search by content area and find materials for introduction, background content, activities, and more!

Inventor Resources

TeachersFirst recently shared their Inventors and Inventions Resources page.  You will find a variety of sites (including grade levels) including Reading Treks, Patent Ofice, and more!

Make a photo into a coloring page

Using this new tool from Google, Coloring Page Generator, you can convert an image into a coloring page.  Here’s a sample using jazz great Louis Armstrong and a simple photo of a dog.

I saw this recently at the GEG Ohio Google Meeting.  The speaker suggested using blank sketchnotes and having the students color and annotate.

Jazz in America

This Herbie Hancock  Institute site includes a variety of lesson plans and other resources (images, timelines, style sheets, musicians, and audio clips).  For a complete review, please see TeacherFirst here.

The best spinner ever!

 

I saw this spinner wheel on Facebook (from CottenTechCoach)- and there is so much to love!  First, you can create multiple spinners, add photos (instead of text), and when you sign in to your free account, you can save them!  I’ve shared one with photos (great for our younger learners or foreign language classes). I used it last week with a class to assign partners for an activity. Please watch her video here for more information (you can change the sounds, the effects, and much more!).

Working Together in Storyboardthat!

(image from Storyboardthat)

NEW feature from Storyboardthat- students can now collaborate and work on the same comic at the same time!  Please see the information here. I tried this with a third-grade class- and it worked well. You need to set up the project as an assignment to the class- then the students have the option to invite another student from the class to join their work. As a teacher, you can see which students are working together.

Go Noodle and More

I know many folks use Go Noodle - here’s a new post from Melissa Henning (one of my TeachersFirst colleagues)  that provides suggestions for your classroom.

Physical Education Resources

Here’s a review from TeachersFirst for physical education educators.  From games to sport specific tips, you can search by content and grade level.

Should you share children’s photos online?

This post from Kasey Bell’s Shake Up Learning outlines ten items to consider before sharing photos of children (think your students as well as your own children.  As much as I enjoy seeing friends' photos on social media, there are serious factors to consider.

The month of May in BrainPOP

May is Mental Health Month- and here are some BrainPOP resources to help you!

Please click here to read about these and other May related items.

Looking for Center Rotation Ideas?

It doesn’t matter if you call them stations or centers- many of us use this workflow in the classroom.  Matt Miller recently shared some center suggestions geared to all grade levels.  You can find his blog post here.  Along with ten tips provided by educators, he has also included a set of task cards to use/modify in your classroom.