One of these things is not like the other,

This is a variation on Big Bird’s song about finding what is different.  In Which One Doesn’t Belong- there are many reasons why each one could be the one that is different.  This is a great thinking and problem-solving site with no correct answers.  I've shared their logo above as a sample.

At first, I was all about the shape- but then I realized the font, color (shape and text), punctuation marks, contractions, well, the list could go on and on.  Challenge your students to think outside the box (and create their own)!  The many “correct” answers make this an option for all grade levels.

Special thanks to iLearnTechnology for sharing (complete post here).

Storyboardthat and the Winter Holidays

Storyboardthat just shared some lesson suggestions with a winter holiday theme.  Please click here to access.    If you and your class have not used this product, please contact your building media specialist for accounts.

Citations are (back) in Google Explore

Well, they were really never in Google Explore (that + you see at the bottom right of the Google tools)- they just went missing when Explore replaced Research.  The good news is they are now in Explore. The screenshot below shows you where to find them.  After you find a web resource (via Explore), select the dots for the format type and then select “ to insert the footnote.  

Here is the notice from Google with some additional information:

In September 2016, we launched Explore in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to give you the insights, design tools, and research recommendations you need to do your best work. Today, we’re improving upon the feature by allowing you to easily cite those findings. Students writing research reports, analysts crafting whitepapers, and others looking to credit their sources can now insert citations as footnotes with the click of a button in Explore in Docs on the web. You can even change the format of your citation, switching between the MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. For more information on how to use citations in Docs Explore, check out the Help Center.

Google Forms- in 7 steps

Alice Keeler shared this infographic on the easy steps to creating a Google Form.  Please click here to read her entire post.

From the inside out

I found this first article from NPR ED very engrossing- how dyslexia looks from an internal perspective.  It helped me see the issue from a student’s viewpoint.

SBT and Digital Citizenship

During Technology class, Dana Ebbighausen and her students have been working on Digital Citizenship.  Here are two samples from her fourth graders using Storyboardthat.

Random acts of kindness

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the long month of December awaits us.  We Are Teachers has a great December project- a random acts of kindness calendar! Read about it in their blog post here.

Get ready to fight

Online, that is.  Code Warriors helps student (grades 4-12) learn JavaScript. This might be something to set up as a station for your students. Now this might appear as a gaming site (it works at home).

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Coding Resources

CodeHow is a YouTube playlist with a wide variety of coding resources.  This site is geared to high school students.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Coding for the high school folks

FreeCodeCamp provides a variety of self paced classes. And you can practice by helping nonprofits with real world projects.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.