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!