Looking for public service ideas?

TeachersFirst just shared a list of sites to help you find service projects for your students.

Toolbar changes in Google

Google has started to roll out some changes to the toolbar.  Below is a screenshot from my school account (no changes) and my personal account (see the addition of Accessibility).  I would expect we would see the rollout to the new format by the end of the year.

Retrieval practice

So how much can you remember?  That’s what retrieval is all about- give your students a prompt and then have them write what they know.  There are many ways to do this and Alice Keeler shares her version using Padlet. While this is a paid service, you can make 3 Padlets for free. Please see her blog post here.

Juneteenth Resources from PBS

 Here are a series of resources from PBS for Juneteenth. Like all of their material, it is broken down by grade level.

What are you wondering?

You and your students will enjoy Wonderopolis (thanks to Matt Miller’s recent blog post for suggestions on how to thrive at the end of the year). Let your students select a question and then share what they learned!

If you need Juneteenth resources

TeachersFirst is the site for you- check here for their curated resources to help students understand Juneteenth.

AI and ELA

Alice Keeler shared this blog post on how ELA instruction needs to change reflecting the changing AI landscape.

PBS shares June activities

From voting issues to hip hop to land management, you will find it in the June PBS monthly update.

Can you guess the location?

GeoGuessr (and you can play for free) shows an image.  Your job is to guess the location.  Move the mouse to check out the entire photo and make your best guess.

Camp Book It! in the Summer

I remember going to Pizza Hut with my children as they finished their book club reading.  Not Book It has a parent summer version.  Students can read and earn a free pizza.  Check out the link.

TeachersFirst Summer Book Club

 Looking to grow this summer?  How about a free book club from TeachersFirst.  You can apply by June 19. This summer they are reading Personalized Reading and you can apply here.

Chat GPT Ideas

Frustrated when using ChatGPT?  Maybe this article from TECA will give you some suggestions for your prompts.  I really think prompt engineering is key to using these AI resources.

Be Mr Jensen

This video has been out for a while but I just saw it recently and thought I would share it.  Maybe it will be an inspiration as we start the last month of school!

So how well does Chat GPT grade?

Deborah Cleveland shared this blog post.  Read as she “trains” Chat GPT to grade (and comment) on a sample student paragraph.  Do you think this would work for you?

Digitial projects for June

Matt Miller suggests in this post to end the year with a variety of digital projects.  From websites to infographics to student-created quizzes or curated sites- you will find something for your students.

Can you guess the place(or animal) in 5 clues?

Matt Miller (in his end-of-the-year Thrive suggestions) share 5 Clues- this would be a great class activity.  And I bet your students could generate their own ideas?  I’ve shared one of the locations ones here.

 

Everything you want to know about Bard

 

There has been lots of news of Chat GPT- but maybe you should take a look at Google’s Bard.  Here is a great webinar from Eric Curts ( my go-to expert for everything Google) as well as a resource site. The resource site contains many examples of academic usage.

AI Bias

Matt Miller shared this post about Jean Darnell and her experience with AI and a Black History Month report.  The post also includes a video interview with Jean and she shares some of her resources.

Acceptable Use Meets AI

I’m sure many districts are struggling with how AI (especially Chat GPT) into their acceptable use policy.  Alice Keeler shares her thoughts here for an ELA classroom. I really liked the sample appropriate (and inappropriate) prompts.

Forcing Checkboxes on Google Forms

Ever want to require folks to make at least 2 (or 3 or ?) or more choices when using checkboxes on a Google Form?  See this post from Alice Keeler on how response validation will make it work!

I’m done, what do I do now?

That’s probably my least favorite class question (and as a slower learner, it was always a reminder that I needed to work faster). Matt Miller has the perfect response- a choice board with 40 options for your students.  His blog post is here.

Is your grading equitable?

Here’s a quick read from Alice Keeler with her suggestions for making grading fair and truly an indication of student learning.

Changing the type of assignment

With all the focus on the new AI Chatbots ( Chat GPT being my favorite), people are starting to look at assignments in a different way.  There are no tools that will catch every chatbot-created paper- so I think looking at the assignment type is a better method.  Here’s an article from Education Week that might help you modify your assignments.

Student Engagement Challenges

Alice Keeler shares 8 suggestions for improving student engagement.  While all of them made sense to me, I think I would select one and focus my energies there first.

New Season of the Math Teachers Lounge

While I shared this podcast last year, for all my K-12 math friends,  you might want to revisit the Math Teachers Lounge.  Hosted by Bethany Lockhared Johnson and Dan Meyer- this is all math, all the time.  And this year they have added study guides (available here). You can access the podcast here or in your favorite podcast app. Here is the Spotify link as well as Apple podcasts.

How to engage students

Alice Keeler shares her brief reflection on how we can work to engage our students in the classroom,  You can view it here.

Looking for things out of this world?

PBS recently shared a series of space exploration resources.  You will find items about the seasons, eclipse,  and the stars.

Looking for teambuilding activities?

I love this time of the school year- I feel I can try new things and be better prepared for September.  Here is a blog post from Elizabeth Mulvahill (at We Are Teachers)   that shares a variety of team-building activities. Some are better outdoors (and now the weather is nice) and there are suggestions for all age groups.

Elevating Learning with Tech

Alice Keeler shares several suggestions to raise the learning levels in your classroom.  While some of the tools she mentions are not free (Peergrade)  or not allowed in our district ( Flip-  and we could use Screencastify), I think there are still enough suggestions to consider.

Virtual Field trips

Need a quick break in your classroom?  Consider a virtual field trip.  We Are Teachers recently shared a list of their favorites (which included my favorite- Discovery  Education). Be sure you preview it before you plan to use it with your class0 I found some of the links might need to be unblocked by your tech folks.

New in PBS this month

Are there ghosts in that forest?  How about hot wings (or butterfly wings)? From PreK-12, this PBS newsletter has something for everyone!

It’s all in how you say it

In Youki Terada’s post in Edutopia, he talks about the connection between teachers' language/tone and class culture.  I found it interesting especially the connection between short, focused written directions and student responses. If Covid taught me anything, it was that the personal connection made in a video was more powerful than a set of written directions- even though the information was the same!

Copyright Resources

Since World Copy Right Day is April 23, you might want to check out these resources from TeachersFirst.  You will find a variety of ideas for teaching copyright and fair use for you and your students.

Making vocabulary exciting

In this post from WeAreTeachers, there are several easy (and low-tech) ideas for vocabulary lessons.  I am a big fan of the Frayer Model as well as Pictionary.

Single Point Rubrics

I first saw single-point rubrics while taking a podcasting class with KQED.  Take a look at this post from Alice Keeler and see if this format would be better for you and your students.

Adding horizontal lines in Google Docs

Google has been adding Smartchips which allow you to add features.  Alice Keeler shared this post about adding a horizontal line. Here is a quick (and silent) video.

Instead of math timed tests

Alice Keeler (math teacher extraordinaire) shares her ideas (and research) on techniques to replace the dreaded timed tests  Please read her post here.

Civics Games in BrainPOP

 

Here’s a blog post from BrainPOP with suggestions on engaging your students in Civics.

Bell Ringers with Jamboard

Here are five high-energy Jamboads to use with your students.  Thanks to Peggy Reimers for sharing.  While she wrote them with back to school in mind, I think these would work any time!   Please click here to view.

Looking for Math materials?

Then check out the math channels on Discovery Education.  You can either sign into your account (and then search for Math and filter for Channels) or use the link here (you will be prompted to sign in). From simulations, challenges, strategies, and connections- there is something for everyone.

One pager

 While reading this morning, I stumbled across award-winning student one-pagers. 

They are sort of a cross between an outline and a graphic novel with lots of creativity and sometimes whimsy.  Please look at recent winners in this article (all completed by high school students). It seems these have been used for a while- here’s Betsy Potash’s blog post from several years ago with step by steps directions (and a great suggestion for using templates). While I was a little overwhelmed looking at the prize winners- I think with Betsy’s suggestions, I could do this!

Everything you want to know about Google Sheets

Eric Curts shared several resources (as well as a fifty-minute video) with everything you need to know about sheets.  If you are a novice or just trying to learn some new techniques, please check out this post here.

Welcome to Conker

Here’s an AI site that will either create a quiz based on a few keywords or text.  You can either share directly from the site or export the questions to a Google Form  Welcome to Conker.  I’ve made a short video demo here.  If you want more information, here's a blog post from Eric Curts.

Asking the right question

If you have explored Bard or Chat GPT, you will know asking the right question can really determine the quality of the output.  Vicki Davis has shared a flowchart to help you (and perhaps your students) think about prompt engineering.

How Curipod can engage

I’ve done a few posts on this AI interactive slide presentation (click here for the first one).  Now Matt Miller shares his suggestions for using Curipod to engage students.

How AI will impact teaching - will schools be obsolete?

Alice Keeler shares her thoughts  (from an AI -artificial intelligence versus HI -Human Intelligence) and how it will impact schools. Take a look here.

Chat GPT and your well being

Ever think of using Chat GPT as a wellness coach? Mandy Froehlich (guest post from Matt Miller) has some suggestions here.

Ideas for ChatGPT

Alice Keeler recently shared several ideas for ChatGPT in the classroom here.

Her focus is engaging learning.

Curipod

Lisa Nielsen shares six suggestions for using Curipod in your classroom.