Google Earth for all

Interested in Google Earth but having trouble getting started?  This article from Tech & Learning will show you everything you need to know. Go to space, take a virtual tour, or check out the street view- you will find the directions here.

SEL for grades 4-8

 

In this article by Trisha DiFazio and Allison Roeser from MiddleWeb, you will find several SEL suggestions that are easy to implement.

Classroomscreen

It’s been a few years since I share Classroomscreen and I recently read this blog post from TEQ. The free version offers a nice variety of tools to help you use your interactive whiteboards in your classroom.

When wordle was a world cloud

So what can you do with a word cloud?  Marilyn Pryle recently updated her post on MiddleWeb with several ideas for using word clouds in your classroom. I tend to use her first suggestion when I have text to analyze.

Matt Miller worksheet makeovers

Move over, HGTV- Matt Miller has the market on reworked worksheets.  Please see his blog post here with suggestions for several improvements. He provides several templates ( I think the mapping one and character cards were my favorites!)

Frayer Yourself

One of my favorite EduProtocols is the Frayer Model.  While it was not created by the EduProtocol folks, many of you may recognize the model. It is traditionally used with vocabulary work. The word or topic goes in the middle with 4  quadrants that include a description, examples, nonexample, and images- there are many variations. You can complete this on paper or online. In their SMART Start, they suggest starting with Frayer a friend as a great way to get to know each other.  But we are in December, and I had a fourth-grade class  (thanks to Carla and Jamie Lynn) Frayer themselves.  We then gave the students the option to share one of their quadrants (who knew there would be a student wo didn’t like chocolate!).  The next day, we repeated the process with winter.

So what did I learn?

1.  My fourth graders needed a little help with time management.  The first time many got so involved with drawing their dream pet, they hardly had time to finish. I would give more time checks to help them move along (or have them do the drawing last!).

2. Several of them suggested this would be a good beginning-of-the-year project.

3. When I asked how we could use it in class, well, it did take a little prompting but they did see how it could be used for vocabulary words and other topics.

If you are looking for additional Frayer information, please see my Wakelet here.

Need information on the seasons?

Image from  PBS.

PBS has something for every grade level with their season resources here.

Need to roll a die (or two?)

Alice Keeler shares her suggestions on online dice (you can the number of dice and even the sides) here.

To infinity and beyond

No, you will not find Buzz Lightyear in these resources from PBS.  But you will find grade-appropriate space lessons and resources about James Webb and this telescope.  Please click the link here.

Need a winter story idea? Take a spin!

 

Tony Vincent (in his blog Spacegrams) recently shared a series of spinners (and other templates) to help your students write. Please see the post here.    I gave the character, setting, and plot wheels- here’s the start for my story:

Just imagine what your students could do!

Discovery Education Interactives

If your school (as mine does)  has a Discovery Education subscription, you can find a wide variety of interactives for your students.  In this recent blog post, you will see several suggestions.  To find all interactives, open your Discovery Education account and search (without any specific term). You can then filter by grade level and Interactives.

This makes so much sense

In her recent blog post, Alice Keeler talks about decomposing fractions in student work.  How great would it be if students learned the why and not just a rote set of rules (that’s where I am).  What do you think?

Create Timelines in Google Sheets

Google recently introduced a new timeline feature.  Eric Curts has an excellent Blog post (along with step-by-step directions and a few templates) here. If you need additional information, you can see the Google information here.

Where do we get our news?

 

Here’s a mini-lesson (geared for grades 6-12) from Facing History and Ourselves. You will find lesson plans and materials to help your students improve their media literacy. While this is part of their election package, I think it would work anytime.

The Greedy Pig

When I first read this math post from Alice Keeler, I saw it as a math game (you can probably tell I never taught math and probability was always the last chapter in the book and got very little time!). 

But The Greedy Pig is a chance to put probability into play.  One die is rolled and everyone records it. You continue to add on the next 4 rolls (unless a 1 is rolled- then everyone loses their points). Yet you can elect to stop at any point. 

While Alice offers a Google Slides Add in (something that would be hard to do in school), I think the game works just as well without it.  Be sure to see the link (in the first paragraph) with some suggestions on strategy.

No Turning Back

Image from Mission US 

Here is a new mission from Mission US- help your students step into the 1960s and the civil rights movement. Visit No Turning Back. This site includes a variety of classroom resources.  In addition, there is a recorded webinar from EdWeb (you can create a free account) and then access the recording here.

Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit

Here is an online professional development you can access for free from December 12 to January 6.  I have attended in past years and found the session extremely useful. And you will also earn PD credit.

Since the sessions are recorded, you can watch them at your convenience. Produced by Matt Miller, he recently shared the following information:

There are nine video presentations from awesome presenters on topics related to tech and solid teaching and learning. Including previous years’ sessions, you’ll have access to more than 80 video presentations! 

Get registered for free at: DitchSummit.com.

HOW IT WORKS: New presentations are released every day. They remain available until the end of the summit so you can re-watch or catch up on any you’ve missed. They’re pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever you want until the summit closes. After that, the summit ends and the videos are unavailable to watch anymore.

FREE PD HOURS: You can get FREE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDITS for watching the videos. There’s a form to fill out after each presentation, and you’ll get an automatic PD certificate emailed to you.

This year’s speakers include:

• Ken Shelton, education leader, and techquity advocate

• Cornelius Minor, author, and consultant, The Minor Collective

• Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones, authors, and playful learning advocates

• Holly Clark, author, speaker, and blended learning expert

• Amanda Sandoval, history and EL teacher

• Hedreich Nichols, consultant, and award-winning educator

• Mandy Froelich, educator mental health change agent

• Al Thomas, educator, filmmaker, photographer, YouTuber

• Michele Eaton, online academy director, author, speaker

Really learning those academic words

 

If you are looking for better ways to make vocabulary stick with your students, you might want to check out these resources. The first is a webinar from TeachersFirst.  Tech-Infused Vocabulary Strategies will provide a variety of options. You can access the recording here.  The second is from MiddleWeb titled Sticky Techniques to Teach Academic Words by Lynne Dorfman & Aileen Hower.

December in BrainPOP

Here’s the December newsletter from BrainPOP- all you need to know for the month!

Hexagonal Thinking

 

This small group strategy helps students think deeper and make connections.  You start with a series of hexagons (you can do this on paper - ClassTools.Net has a hexagon generating tool - or with Google Slides) and the students work in groups to organize and build connections.  I recently joined two fifth-grade classes (thanks to Sandy and Tracey) where the hexagons were labeled with types of candy.  I also gave each group a few blanks so they could add their own favorites.

In my demonstration, I mentioned the connection between Skittles and M&Ms. I reminded the students not to go to the obvious answer (i.e., they are both round) but rather to dig deeper.  This is the list we generated:

1. They both come in multiple colors and in different flavors.

2. They come in different packaging sizes.

3. The outside is different from the inside.

4. They don’t melt in your hand.

5. They both have letters on them (I must admit, I think I eat the M&Ms so quickly, I might have missed those letters!)

6. They both are high in sugar.

They worked in groups of three or four for about fifteen minutes. Each group glued their hexagons (using construction paper) and shared their strongest connection. We did a gallery walk to view the results.  Here are my implementation suggestions:

1. Start with a low-content topic (I did popular candy- they were amazed I could find links between Peeps and Hersey Kisses) and I would start on paper first. Once they have the process, I would move to academic content (vocabulary words, character traits, historical events, and people).

2. Organize first and then glue- I would hold off on the glue until you have seen their work and provided some feedback. I had some students who couldn’t tell me the connection.  But since they had already used the glue, it was hard for them to change the arrangement.

3. Walk around and listen to the conversations- that’s where the learning is happening. Some of my students wrote their connections on the construction paper as well.

4. While many of the students found it easy to put pairs together, I would encourage them to try and join these pairs and build a longer chain. From the yellow samples, you can see this provided more connections.

5. If you are going to use hexagonal thinking frequently, I would make laminated sets and then use dry-erase markers to add the text.(While we have lots of Ellison blocks, there were no hexagons!)

6. For younger learners, replace the text with an image.

7. For my classes I cut the shapes- an option would be to have your students cut them out.

If you are looking for additional information, please see Betsy Potash’s blog.TeachersFirst also did a webinar you can access the recording and resources here. This post demonstrates the Google Slide applications.

It’s not winter yet

Even though winter doesn’t begin on December 21, it is never too early to look at some interesting winter activities from Eric Curts. Please see his blog post here. Here are some of the activities along with templates:

Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides

Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings

Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings

Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity

Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets

Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs

Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

4 Ways to use Screencastify

Looking for ideas to use Screencastify in your classroom?  Then check out this blog post from Screencasify. From test corrections to newsletters- you might find new ideas.

More Hour of Code Resources

(Image from Disney’s Moana Wayfinding with code)

TeachersFirst has shared their best suggestions for the upcoming coding week   (December 5-12).  Please click here to view. My favorite is Moana- can you help her complete her quest?

Helping student search

Are you frustrated when your students try to type the entire question into the search bar?  Then check out Monica Burn’s column in Edutopia here. She has several suggestions that will help your students and lower your stress!

Create a Brochure

Here is a lesson from Google’s Applied Digitial Skills to help your students create a brochure. It includes step-by-step directions as well as extension activities.

FREE Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips

Recently I attended an EdWeb webinar with Hall Davidson from Discovery Education.  While I have heard Hall in person, he is just as engaging online. If you want to watch the presentation, you can join EdWeb (for free) and then look for Discover Virtual Resources Improving Accessibility to Global Experiences.

You can access all his shared resources here.  While some of the sites might have a login for Discovery Education (in the top right), you do not need to log in (on the other hand, if you are a Discovery Education user, you will want to log in for additional resources).

There is a Lego field trip (geared for grades 2-6) coming up on December 8- you can register here.

South African Creativity- I Am Because You Are

Here’s an interesting site from Google Arts and Culture. "I Am Because You Are" is a celebration of South African creativity, community, and craft. Learn about customs and rituals, take virtual tours of museums, discover early art and explore decorative crafts.

Touchpad tips for Chromebooks

Often I find students frustrated when using a touchpad.  Maybe this blog post from Eric Curts (and the linked poster) would help.  Maybe you could practice one option a week.

TeachersFirst straight from Atlantic City

If you have never used TeachersFirst, you might want to check out this presentation I gave at the recent NJEA convention.  From curated resources to outstanding (free) professional development, there is truly something for everyone. Click here to view the presentation.

Suggestions for voice typing

If you need some motivation for trying Voice Typing in Google. Please see Kasey Bell’s post here.  She shares seven different ideas.

Molly from Denali

While I’m sure I’ve passed this show on the guide, I didn’t realize this PBS series included a podcast.  In this review from TeachersFirst, you will find suggestions for classroom implementation. You can visit the site here.

What do you know about Indigenous peoples?

While my fifth graders learned the major Native American groups, they would have been floored to explore Native Land Digital. You can read TeachersFirst’s review here. You can search by area, treaties, and languages.  It also includes a Teacher’s Guide.

Working on my shortcuts

Alice Keeler has great suggestions for keyboard shortcuts- please see her post here on Ctrl A.  I think #3 is my favorite.