More Hour of Code Resources

(Image from Disney’s Moana Wayfinding with code)

TeachersFirst has shared their best suggestions for the upcoming coding week   (December 5-12).  Please click here to view. My favorite is Moana- can you help her complete her quest?

Helping student search

Are you frustrated when your students try to type the entire question into the search bar?  Then check out Monica Burn’s column in Edutopia here. She has several suggestions that will help your students and lower your stress!

Create a Brochure

Here is a lesson from Google’s Applied Digitial Skills to help your students create a brochure. It includes step-by-step directions as well as extension activities.

FREE Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips

Recently I attended an EdWeb webinar with Hall Davidson from Discovery Education.  While I have heard Hall in person, he is just as engaging online. If you want to watch the presentation, you can join EdWeb (for free) and then look for Discover Virtual Resources Improving Accessibility to Global Experiences.

You can access all his shared resources here.  While some of the sites might have a login for Discovery Education (in the top right), you do not need to log in (on the other hand, if you are a Discovery Education user, you will want to log in for additional resources).

There is a Lego field trip (geared for grades 2-6) coming up on December 8- you can register here.

South African Creativity- I Am Because You Are

Here’s an interesting site from Google Arts and Culture. "I Am Because You Are" is a celebration of South African creativity, community, and craft. Learn about customs and rituals, take virtual tours of museums, discover early art and explore decorative crafts.

Touchpad tips for Chromebooks

Often I find students frustrated when using a touchpad.  Maybe this blog post from Eric Curts (and the linked poster) would help.  Maybe you could practice one option a week.

TeachersFirst straight from Atlantic City

If you have never used TeachersFirst, you might want to check out this presentation I gave at the recent NJEA convention.  From curated resources to outstanding (free) professional development, there is truly something for everyone. Click here to view the presentation.

Suggestions for voice typing

If you need some motivation for trying Voice Typing in Google. Please see Kasey Bell’s post here.  She shares seven different ideas.

Molly from Denali

While I’m sure I’ve passed this show on the guide, I didn’t realize this PBS series included a podcast.  In this review from TeachersFirst, you will find suggestions for classroom implementation. You can visit the site here.

What do you know about Indigenous peoples?

While my fifth graders learned the major Native American groups, they would have been floored to explore Native Land Digital. You can read TeachersFirst’s review here. You can search by area, treaties, and languages.  It also includes a Teacher’s Guide.

Working on my shortcuts

Alice Keeler has great suggestions for keyboard shortcuts- please see her post here on Ctrl A.  I think #3 is my favorite.

Future Engineer Series

Kahoot! Is launching another Future Engineer virtual trip with the Callisto: Space Innovation Tour in conjunction with Amazon.  Please click here to explore. It is suggested for grades 4 and above.

Indigenous People Resources

TeachersFirst recently shared this review of Indigenous People in the Americas sponsored by the Kennedy Center.   The site has a wide variety of content for all ages. The lessons are standards-based (both Common Core and Art) and are easy to follow.

Looking for some new ideas for Thanksgiving?

Then check out this Smithsonian site Native Knowledge 360 Initiative (reviewed here by TeachersFirst). You will find lesson plans, artifacts, professional development, and more.

Turkey Projects

Here are several Google Slides Turkey options Vicki Davis shared in her newsletter this week:    Build a Turkey - Google Slides Writing Prompt via @bethkingsley13​

​ Disguise a Turkey Template on Google slides via @costasecond

What I am Thankful for

  

Eric Curts has reshared this ``What I am thankful for” project in his post here.  I did this last year with several classes and the students like it.  It also gave me a chance to teach some basic slide tools. Eric provides the template and directions in the post along with a video tutorial.

A gratitude tree

Here’s a great Thanksgiving project in either Google Slides or paper.  It if from the Google Teachers for Education site.  What are you grateful for this year?  Click here to make a copy.

Looking for Thanksgiving Resources?

Are you looking for Thanksgiving resources?  Check out this curated list from TeachersFirst.  My favorite is the Plimoth Plantation- it’s something I used in my fifth-grade class.

Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month and this interactive activity from PBS would be a great way to explore Native American customs in an interactive format.  As part of their Mission US series, the student can role-play as Little Fox.  Here’s their except:

As the game opens, Little Fox is a 12-year-old growing up with his band around the Powder River Basin (in present-day southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming). Little Fox's life, however, is soon impacted by the encroachment of United States military expeditions, railroad builders, and white settlers. As Little Fox grows older, the Northern Cheyenne way of life changes dramatically, as the United States continues its expansion into the West. Ultimately, Little Fox experiences the Battle of the Little Bighorn (known to the Cheyenne as the Battle of the Greasy Grass) and faces decisions that will impact his future and the future of his people.

 You will want students to create an account so they can login and save their work.

Classroom Management Suggestions ( you will enjoy)

I ran across this podcast from Betsy Potash titled Classroom Management Strategies You Can Enjoy where she interviews CJ Reynolds.  You can either listen to the podcast or read her post here.  I’ve included one of CJ’s videos (from his channel Real Rap with Reynolds) below.

What to do after the video

Matt Miller (Ditch that Textbook fame and recent creator of TeachFlix.) shares over 12 engaging suggestions to pair with a video. Below are excepts from his email:

Ever need a quick activity to pair with a video?

You know ... 

Something that'll help students take the next step with what they've learned?

Something that'll help them engage in the content in new ways?

And something that isn't just busy work???

We've got you covered! In fact, we have several options you can choose from.

We created a new free ebook full of activities to engage your students with videos. It's called "Teaching with TeachFlix."

It has links to lots of simple activities you can use with all sorts of classroom videos, including:

Riddle Me This    Word Splash    Tweet All About It      Brain Dump

3-2-1 Protocol    4 Step Summary    Quiz Maker    Picture Dictionary

Hexagonal Thinking    YouTube Channel     Storyboard

... plus ideas for using some of our social media templates in the DTT templates library -- and places to find other great teaching videos.

Get that ebook in a Google Slides file, a PowerPoint file, or a PDF file ... and knock out some lesson plans in a hurry!

5 new Google Docs Features

From changing the page orientation to using smart chips to insert files- please see this blog post from Alice Keeler.

Veterans Day

With this short school week (here in my district we have in-service on Election Day and then are out of school on 10/10-11 for the NJEA Teachers Convention), I realize you might need to celebrate Veterans Day next week.  Here’s a curated list of resources from TeachersFirst.

5 Quick ShortCuts

Alice Keeler shared  5 great shortcuts - I really like the Ctrl 1 to move through the tabs.  Please see her post here.

Dancing with myself

Well, not really dancing, but teaching.  In this blog post from Edutopia,  Noah Teachey shows how he created video lessons to co-teach with him.  This allowed him to spend time with small groups while others learned with his videos.  While Noah was teaching string (as well as music production), I think there are applications for any classroom.

Make your own Airbnb Listing

 

Here’s a new social media template from Matt Miller.  Please see his suggestions below:

Here's a link to download it for Google Slides or PowerPoint.

Now ... how to use this Airbnb template?

Lots of ways ...

Write a listing for the home of a character your students are studying.

Review the home of a historical figure.

Write contrasting reviews (positive and negative) from two perspectives on the same place.

Write a "before" listing and an "after" listing based on a significant world event (like a war).

Students write a listing for a place they'd love to stay to share about themselves with the class.

Look here for additional templates.

Evaluating Media

TeachersFirst shared this review (geared to grades 4-5) to help students evaluate media.  Here is their review and here is the link to the Common Sense lessons (My Media Choices).

New to Twitter?

 

If you would like to get started on Twitter, TeachersFirst has step-by-step directions here.  Once you get started, you might find using TweetDeck easier to manage and review tweets.  Directions are here.

Need help starting your writing?

I saw this recently on Facebook- what a wonderful collection of writing prompts, character starters, and more.  While it does have advertisements, I think it could still be useful in your class.  There is even a children’s version for younger learners.