Virtual Gallery Walk

This is a guest post from Laurie Centimore (SMS 7th-grade science).  I thought you would enjoy her version of a gallery walk!

This project was inspired by Mosa Mack, but I took it a step further and ran a tech experiment with it.  Overall, it was a success and I can't wait to do it again.  This week my students were assigned to create a Google slide show that:

1. Shows an example of a nonrenewable resource
2. Shows an example of a renewable resource
3. Compares a non-renewable resource cycle with a renewable resource cycle
4. Explains how each resource is distributed throughout the world and how this impacts environment and society.
5. Sum it up by designing a solution to conserve one of the natural resources, or to mitigate the uneven distribution of a natural resource.

After the students complete their presentations, I uploaded all of them attached to a new assignment so that the students could participate in a "Digital Gallery Walk" of sorts, rather than present their work traditionally.  The students spent time reading through their peers' presentations.  They were then asked to leave public class comments directed specifically towards their peers' presentations stating:

1. One positive statement commending their final idea or their presentation.
2. One area that could be improved and how to improve it.
3. One question specific to their idea.  Students needed to respond to these questions, as well, ultimately leading to a digital conversation about natural resources and designing good Google presentations.

Students are permitted to make changes to their presentations based on constructive feedback in conversations with their peers before final submission to teacher for grading.  Overall, the students have been very productive, on task and reporting to me that they really enjoyed the assignment!

I shared some student presentations with you.  They are still a work in progress because of the peer feedback.  Click here to see a sample of some of the conversations taking place in the comments.

 You can see some student samples (click here and here).

Google And Art

From Eric Curts, here’s a resource filled blog post on Google tools for art.  From creating avatars and mosaics to Google Arts and Culture- there is something for everyone no matter their grade level or artistic ability.

Google for the K-2 folks

Eric Curts is one of my favorite Google Gurus recently shared a blog post with a number of activities in Google.  I have done some of them and all are engaging and have clear directions. Please see his post here.

Google Docs and the Explore Feature

While I’ve seen the Explore feature in Google Slides (where it seems to be format related)- that is not the same feature in Google Docs. It is a great search feature- both in your Drive and on the web.  Please see Kasey Bell’s blog post from Shake Up Learning here to fully realize your options.(Some folks will be very happy with the footnote feature!)

ClassHook

This week I watched a TEQ session about videos and formative assessment.  During

he session, I was chatting with the facilitator and she mentioned ClassHook.  This

website provides access to TV and movie clips sorted by grade level and content.

It might help you provide a hook to engage your students.   You will want to make

a free account to be able to view all the content.

My sample it from Snow White and was tagged as Foreshadowing.

More on Google Slides with Captions

A few months ago, I shared the live caption feature in Google Slides.  Matt Miller

recently shared the video below along with some creative classroom implementation

suggestions.

You can read his complete post here. (Video only is here)

Good news for Remind users!

Please see Richard Byrne's post here- no service interruption for Remind!

Looking for higher Order Thinking Tools?

Check out this information from Discovery Education.  SOS resources and other tools! You will need to access your Discovery Education account. (Image from Discovery Education)

Rediscover SOS: Myth Bustin’

Rediscover SOS: Myth Bustin’

From Discovery Education

Strategies like Three Truths and One Lie (CDN Version), Snowball Fight

(CDN Version), and Paper Slide (CDN Version) are long-time favorites

for both teachers and students.

They are easily adaptable to many different grade levels and content

areas and are fun ways to engage students in analyzing digital media.

But, did you know that they represent only a handful of more than 130

different tried and true strategies in the Spotlight on Strategies

(CDN Version) collection?

Rediscover SOS is a series that reminds us about some of these

great strategies. Take this opportunity to explore a strategy that you

haven’t used in a while.

Challenge yourself to give this strategy a try, and

share your outcomes with us in the DEN Online Community.

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Rediscover Myth Bustin’ (CDN Version)

Description: Myth Bustin’ mimics the scientific inquiry model used on

the popular television show and Discovery Education asset, Mythbusters (CDN Version). Students consider myth/fact statements provided by the teacher, and

through the exploration of a variety of resources, determine whether

the statements are fact or fiction. This strategy enables students to

develop critical thinking skills as they examine and use evidence to support their claims.

Materials: You’ll need a video segment and related teacher-generated myth/fact statements. Students will need pen/pencil and paper.

Adaptations and Extensions:

Instead of giving myth/fact statements to the students, have
them pull statements from the media as they watch and listen.
Then, have students trade with one another to see if they’re
 able to provide evidence that proves or disproves each claim.
Ask students to use their claims and evidence as the starting
point of an argumentative essay.
Create a team challenge by keeping a tally of points given to
 teams who are able to identify the myths and facts correctly over time.

Teaching Economics?

In his post from last week, Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) shared a link to a series of free webinars from the Council for Economics Education.  If you register (yet the time is not convenient), you will be able to watch the archived version. You will also receive a certificate for attending.

See all the class working at once

Here’s another interesting Google idea (via Matt Miller’s blog post)- use slides to be able to watch all your students working at once.  Complete directions (from Krista Harmsworth, Michigan) are here.  You can tell who needs coaching and who is ready for another assignment.

Helping your students sequence

In a recent blog post from Matt Miller (Ditch the Textbook Fame), I saw this add on to randomize the order of your slides.  Then your students can drag and drop them back in order. Looks like a productive activity.  You can get all the details at Matt’s post here (randomizing the slides is number 10).

What’s the Difference?

Between Project Based Learning and projects?  This morning in Alice Keeler’s blog, she shared a great video from Edutopia- I’ve added it here.

Notebook Slide Template- Going Back to school!

While I know it is a little late for back to school, I still think this newest template

from Slides Carnival is worth a look.  I’ve copied their template and you can see

it here (you can also make a copy or go to Slides Carnival site here).  Here are

a few screenshots to start you off:

The ultimate Google Cheat Sheet for Docs

Kasey Bell (from Shake Up Learning) has shared an awesome Google Cheat sheet for Docs.  Go to her blog here and you will be able to sign up for her blog and then you will be able to download the 10-page document. You can make copies and share with your students.

Alice Explains it All- Spreadsheet Tools

In this recent blog post, Alice Keeler shares a few essential skills for using Google Sheets.  Just remember- “middle, middle,middle”.

Spreadsheets to track

In these days of Standards Based Grading, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to track specific behaviors on a spreadsheet?  Alice Keeler has taken that a few steps further with her Progress Bar Of Objectives Template.  Here you can just check off the boxes and watch the progress bar (you can set your own targets).  If you use this in conjunction with her Template Tab- and life will be good!

Remove the background

1.

2.

3.

Ever wanted to put your students in a photo?  Now you can easily remove the

background from a photo with Remove.bg. In the sample above, I took the photo at my desk

then removed the background (step 2).  Then I created a Google Slide (with the

background I wanted) and placed myself in the photo. These could be

interesting for all types of digital projects.

Want to know how?  Read Richard Byrne’s blog post here.  He’s even included

a short video to walk you through the process.

(Update- here are Richard's step by step directions to using Google Slides with Remove.bg)

More Top Ten SOS!

More top ten from Discovery Education- this time the focus is on higher order thinking skills.  Did any of your favorite SOS make the list?

Top Ten SOS for Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Welcome to the SOS Top Ten series. In this edition, we highlight ways

to use Spotlight on Strategies (CDN Version) to promote higher-order

thinking skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning identifies four areas of skills,

knowledge, and expertise that students should master to succeed in

21st-century work and life: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking,

and Creativity.

Critical Thinking specifically focuses on effective reasoning, systems thinking, making judgments and decisions, and solving problems, all of which are higher-order functions. Many of the strategies in the Spotlight on Strategies (CDN Version) collection provide a framework to help students practice and perfect their higher-order thinking skills.

Verizon and Remind- not perfect together

If you have a Remind account, your email this morning probably included an email

from Remind.  Effective the end of this month (1/28), your Remind text message

on Verizon based accounts (only) will not send.  While this is due to a Verizon

pricing issue with Remind, your students/parents have other options.

In both your Remind email this morning (and in this blog post from Richard

Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers), you will see that you can still send

messages via the app or email.

If you are going to continue to use Remind, I would start sending messages now to encourage folks to switch to the app.  If you want to switch to another option (not my first choice since we are the middle of the school year), here’s a list of options.  To this list, I would also add Google Classroom.
(Note- 1/15- Here's another update from Richard Byrne)

STEM Human Body Ideas (from DE and Siemens STEM Day)

Several new lesson ideas  

And the Ears Have It!

Topic: Sound, hearing, and the human body Students will explore the nature of human hearing by attempting to determine the location at different locations in a room. Then, they will design a hearing device to increase their sound-locating success. Addresses: NGSS Level of Difficulty: 3 Grade Range K-2 Body Systems in Space Topic: Healthcare Students will learn about the upcoming planned missions to Mars from various space companies. They will then design a product that could be used to help astronauts as their bodies face the rigors of  space on the long journey to Mars. Addresses: NGSS Level of Difficulty: 2 Grade Range - 9-12 Perception Deception Topic: Optical Illusions In this activity, students will gain an understanding of the structure of the human eye and analyze and classify optical illusions. Addresses: NGSS Level of Difficulty: 2 Grade Range: 3-5 Download these and more here!

Need a tab for each student?

Ever have a spreadsheet with each student’s name at the bottom?  How about if you could just enter the roster on one page and it would automatically make you a tab for each student?  If you are interested, please check out the Template Tab Add-On from Alice Keeler.  If can make your life easier!  Think about using it with a graphic organizer- you can quickly create a tab for each student!

Search Tricks for Google

From the Google EDU in 90 folks comes a quick video with some search options for both you and your students.

Your pass to the Big Game!

Join Discovery Education for their virtual field trip (along with the American Heart Association and NFL Play 60) prior to the Super Bowl in Atlanta.  Sign up information is here (the live event is Wednesday, January 30, 12:00 PM ET). Register and you will get access to the archived session.

Unhappy with the new themes in Google Classroom?

With the recent Google Classroom, there are now changes in the themes.  I noticed most of them are right justified (guess that is so the class name and the access code don’t get lost in the image!).

Rather than using one of the these, you can upload your own image and make it custom.  Please see Alice Keeler’s blog post here for complete directions (including one of her templates!).

2019 Updates to Google Classroom

While these updates were announced a few days ago, I just saw the changes in the district this morning.  While there are a few cosmetic things (changes in the location of the class code in Stream, more theme choices, and a cleaner view in Classwork), the biggest change is the ability to drag and drop material on the Classworks page.  This includes topics as well as assignments! For additional information, please see the Google announcement here. Interested in the new Drag and drop feature?  See Alice Keeler’s post here.