Looking for the main ideas?

I saw this Black Out text  (for improved reading comprehension) last night on Facebook- and it is wonderful!

Eric Curts’ post has many great tips in creating  information text documents for your students- and then having them delete the unneeded details . This will help them with reading comprehension and provide a tool to help them focus on the main ideas.  As Eric says, you could do this with paper and a black marker, but I think his tech solution is even better!

As a variation on a theme, consider having your students create Black Out poetry.

Google Templates Have Moved!

Using Google Templates can be a quick way to jumpstart a document or a time-saving device (when you are using the same format again and again). While templates used to have their own location, they have now moved!  I’ve created a video to show you how to find them.  For additional information, please see Richard Byrne’s (from Free Technology for Teachers) post here.

Google Earth

Have you ever explored Google Earth?  Here’s a great tutorial from Richard Byrne Free Technology for Teachers.  Google Earth doesn’t work on Chromebooks- so you will have ;to use a machine running Windows/IOS.

Side by Side

Alice Keeler shared her Chrome Extension in a recent blog post.  It will allow you to open two windows side by side- in the example, you can see Google classroom as well as a student document. Please read her post here for all the details.

Make your slides interactive! (Choose your own adventure!)

Alice Keeler (in her blog post today) reminded me of the possibilities with making non-linear slide presentations.  I use them frequently in training (so I can quickly move around the presentation without going sequentially) but the examples she shared included the ever popular Choose your own adventure genre.

In her post, she included superb resources from Eric Curts.  Please click here  to access his webinar recording and resources.  Here is a brief overview of the project.

I would like to explore this technique with a class- please contact me if you are interested.

Poetry in Storybird

While working with Chris Testa’s class on Storybird today, Chris had a chance to explore the poetry feature.  It provides a single image with words for you to arrange over the picture.  You can reset both the image and the word.  As with all Storybird projects, the images are engaging. She emailed her work to me:

This might be a fun group activity on a smartboard. You could collect the images in a slide presentation. If you are in district and want to try Storybird, here are the directions.

Adding your voice to slide presentations

Many folks have complained (myself included) that there is not an easy way to add voice to Google slides. The Learnia may offer a solution.  You can upload your slides (after you download them to powerpoint) and then add up to 15 minutes of narration.

Here’s a sample I created on signing into your school Google account.  The site is designed for flipped classroom lessons, but I know you could create any type of tutorial you wanted.  You can email the presentation or embed it.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

The History Project- tell your story

Want to share someone’s life story?  Check out The History Project.  You can can create a timeline or a slideshow.  Geared for older students ( emails or Google sign in- I would think middle - high school), you can view publically shared stories or create your own.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

MathScienceMusic

Here’s a site that shows the connection between math, science, and music.  Geared for all ages, there are a variety of activities for all types of learners (and learnings).

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

So how did America volunteer during WWI?

 Here’s a free set of lesson plans covering these topics:

1| U.S. American Volunteers in World War I, 1914-1917

2| U.S. American Women’s Volunteerism and Suffrage in World War I

3| Diversity and Debate on the U.S. Home Front During the “European War”

4| Lost Generation Artists and Writers as World War I Volunteers

5| Humanitarian International Relief: A Legacy of Great War Volunteerism

6| Young People, Volunteerism, and Global Citizenship: From World War I to the Present

I’m not sure if I would do all 22 lessons, but I think it is worth a look for integration with your lessons.  

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.