Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Check out these great blog posts:

• Teach Better by Doing Less – The Reflective Educator

  There are two common activities teachers do that have either little to no impact on student learning but which do take teachers a tremendous amount of time, time that could be better spent on other activities.

• NV Math Team | Math

  What is the New Visions Mathematics Curriculum?

• Augmented Reality | Hide messages in the real world | WallaMe

• Audiotool

• Timeblocks | A quick and easy Agenda Timer

• 10 Tips to Keep Pupils’ Attention – UKEdChat

• Why is Maths a Big Deal? – UKEdChat

• 10 Easy Ways to Motivate Your Students by @RichardJARogers – UKEdChat

• Insufficient sleep in children associated with poor diet, obesity and more screen time – UKEdChat

• Brickapic – Turn your pic into a brick mosaic

  tags:lego brick picture photo

• PBS LearningMedia

  tags:math maths real world resource

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Fog and Roadway Icing: The Warning of the Husky Bus Crash

  Yesterday, a bus with a number of students of the Husky Band overturned on Interstate 90 just west of the town of George, Washington (see map below) as they headed to the Apple Cup game in Pullman. A number of students sustained injuries, but thankf…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Access and Use the Blurring Tools in YouTube’s Video Editor

  This is the time of year for winter concerts and plays at schools. If the ones at your are anything like the one I attended last week, there will be plenty of parents recording the performances. And I’d guess that you or someone from your school wil…

• How Technology Helps In The Education Of Special-Needs Students – e-Learning Infographics

  Special-needs students who have, in the past, faced particular learning challenges in the classroom have benefited from the introduction of technology.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How Frost Appears on Plants – A Science Lesson

  Here in Maine we’re way past worrying about frost in the morning. That’s because we’ve already had a few snow storms. But some of you may have frost on plants in the morning. SciShow Kids has a new video all about what causes frost to appear on plan…

• Filling a Makerspace Room – Classroom Snapshots

  Wondering what to start collecting and purchasing for your STEM/STEAM makerspace room?  I started this growing list to help guide what’s added to our elementary STEAM makerspace. Do you have any additions I could make to this list?  Comment below or…

• Low streamflows have constrained the salmon migration this fall | Watching Our Water Ways

  If you are hosting out-of-town visitors this Thanksgiving weekend, it might be a good time to take them salmon-watching — or go by yourself if you get the urge to see one of nature’s marvelous phenomena.

• John Thompson: Goliath, King of the Zombies | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  John Thompson here writes about his reaction to the annual conference of the Network for Public Education, where the implicit theme was that David is beating Goliath, but Goliath just keeps stumbling forward, crushing public schools and advancing pr…

• Ditch Summit 2018 PD on Your Couch

• Free Technology for Teachers: Wakelet Now Lets You Copy and Build Upon Collections

  Wakelet is free bookmarking and note-taking service that I’ve been using since April when I started looking for alternatives to Padlet. On Wakelet you can create collection and sub-collections of notes, bookmarks, and pictures.

• Royalty Free Music by Bensound

  You can use this music for free in your multimedia project (online videos (Youtube, Facebook,…), websites, animations, etc.) as long as you credit Bensound.com (in the description for a video). For example: Music: https://ift.tt/1R9NTfT

• Free Technology for Teachers: Bensound – Free Music for Video Projects

  On Tuesday I wrote about the impending closure of the Free Music Archive. In that post I shared some other sites to find free music to use in your multimedia projects. Thanks to an email from Kari Kakeh I’ve learned about another good site to find f…

• 7 geography tools that mess with your head. Cause that’s a good thing | History Tech

  We all know that I spent a significant amount of my formative years digging through old National Geographic maps. You know the ones I’m talking about. They got slipped into the middle of the magazine and unfolded into poster size after you discovere…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Make a QR Code for Just About Anything

  This fall there seems to be a renewed interest in QR codes, at least amongst readers of this blog. In just the last two weeks I’ve answered a half dozen emails with questions related to QR codes.

• Using Technology to Humanize – The Principal of Change

  I have been an advocate of technology in education for a long time. But I have been an advocate of “people” for my entire career.

• That Isn’t a Mistake – dy/dan

  I’ve seen this particular incorrect answer from dozens of students over the last several weeks. The work for 10 and 15 marbles is incorrect, but it isn’t a mistake.

• Tweens are smart about smartphones: Study – NetFamilyNews.org | NetFamilyNews.org

  Everything about this study is smart — the 10-14 year-old respondents (average age 11), what the authors are modeling for pediatricians and parents, and the tweens’ answers. For example, when asked what age kids should be given mobile phones, one an…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Answerables

  Answerables the innovative educational tool that combines the best features of game based learning w/ a learning management system has just released their free iPad app.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Free Music Archive is Closing – But Not All is Lost

  For the better part of the last decade the Free Music Archive has been one of my go-to places to find free music to use video projects. Unfortunately, the end is near for the Free Music Archive.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Change Coming to Your Google Account’s Sign-in Screen

  Starting next Tuesday you might notice a small change to the sign-in screen for your Google account. The change is that you will see a box around the “email or phone number” field on the sign-in page instead of just a single line.

• what giving students choice looks like

  1. People to Work With. Give students the chance to choose whether to work independently or with another student(s). As a teacher, you can still maintain some control by giving students input.

• Three Ways You Can Improve Your Math Textbook Tomorrow – Achieve the Core Aligned Materials

  In my work as a Mathematics Specialist at Student Achievement Partners, I get the opportunity to talk to and work with educators from around the country. Often, especially in conversations with elementary school teachers, we talk about challenges wi…

• Teach Students How to Give Peer Feedback – Teacher Tech

  Peer feedback can be powerful for learning, but only if students do a good job at it. Analyze and critique can be higher critical thinking levels than doing the task in the first place. I guarantee if you ask students to give peer feedback the quali…

• Gamification, part 2

  In the previous article, I wrote about the basic motivation principles for setting up a great gamification model. In this one, I would like to tell you what I learned about failing and why it is a critical element in gamification.

• The Benefits of Gamification for Call Center Managers | Fonolo

  Attention all call center managers: It’s time to talk about you. Picture it: You are the fearless leader of a call center team in 2018.

• 20 ways to celebrate hour of code in any class

• The Nerdy Teacher: What I Learned About Literacy After I Left The English Classroom #EngChat #Literacy

  Making the decision to move from my high school English Literature and Composition job after 15 years to build a makerspace and support tech integration for teachers, was very tough. I loved working with students and helping them read and evaluate t…

• Nobody Knows Anything: Why Skipping Playtesting Is Inconceivable | David Mullich

  Last week plagued us with at least three deaths of figures in the entertainment industry.  The death of beloved Marvel Comics editor and Marvel film cameo star Stan Lee made front page news around the world.

• Atlas Obscura Shares Your D&D Maps – The Map Room

  Remember how Atlas Obscura put out a call for Dungeons & Dragons maps? They’ve received a pile of entries and are featuring two dozen of them: “[Y]our D&D maps are more incredible than we could have imagined. Every single one calls out for explorati…

• Where Apple Maps and Google Street View Will Be Driving (or Walking) Next – The Map Room

  Apple now has a fleet of cars collecting data for Apple Maps. Since they’ve been making a point about consumer privacy lately, this page lists where their cars are going to be in the coming weeks. (AppleInsider notes that some of that data collectio…

• Amusing Monday: New satellite enhances images of East Pacific region | Watching Our Water Ways

  An amazing new satellite, designed to peer down on the West Coast and Hawaii, started transmitting stunning images last week, when heavy snows blanketed parts of Alaska while California wildfires sent plumes of smoke into the air. The satellite is c…

• Showcasing Class Blogs! – The Edublogger

  Do you enjoy seeing what’s happening in other classrooms to get new perspectives and ideas? Or maybe you’re looking for other classes around the globe that your students can connect with? We’ve just updated our list of class blogs!

• Another Test? How to Plan Assessments So Students Can Learn | All Things Assessment

  Ever feel like you are giving assessments all the time? Between the pretest, post-test, quizzes, district benchmarks, state interim assessments, or other nationally normed progress monitoring assessments, when is a student supposed to learn? When is…

• Why choice matters to student learning?

  Student choice builds ownership in the learning. Student choice allows students to display their learning in the way that they feel best represents their knowledge.

• Control Alt Achieve: Adding and Using Comments on Screencastify Videos

  There are many excellent screen recording tools available, but one of my favorites is the Screencastify Chrome extension. It is simple to use, has lots of nice features, works on Chromebooks, and is free for videos up to 10 minutes long.

• Classroom Games and Tech: A Quick, Simple Google Chrome Extension for Student Video Responses

  Here’s the most popular tool I showed at the miGoogle conference recently. It’s a simple Chrome extension from Alice Keeler called Webcam Record.

• Welcome to Discovery Education Canada – Total Education Solution in Canada

  In case you missed it, check out our monthly Newsletter. We have included timely content, resources, and events to engage your students inside and outside of the classroom.

• Gamification can help education — here’s how | VentureBeat

  Teachers and parents hear it over and over again: “make learning fun” to keep kids engaged. Gamified education apps for use outside of the classroom have proliferated, leading students to expect gamification when they’re back inside of the classroom…

• A Student’s Guide to Using Google Sheets – Teacher Tech

  Using a spreadsheet is a life skill. In the real world, successful people use spreadsheets. I have created a Google Doc with 4 essential skills that if students can do just these 4 things they can use spreadsheets for assignments.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some amazing blog posts from this past week:

• 6 ways ordinary people can prevent climate change, according to researchers and advocates

  Worried about the environment? Scientists, researchers and advocates share the top changes we can make to be part of the climate change solution. In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a leading international body on climate chan…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create a QR Code for a Voice Recording

  Just a few minutes ago I answered an email from a reader named Chris who wanted a recommendation on how to have students create voice recordings that play back when a QR code is scanned. My recommendation was to try Vocaroo.

• ditchthattextbook.com

• Badass Teachers Association: Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Linda-Darling Hammond – How a Once Great Educator Got Lost Among the Corporate Stooges by Steven Singer

  Linda Darling-Hammond is one of my education heroes. Perhaps that’s why her recent article in the Washington Post hurts so much.

• Different Definitions of Personalized Learning Conflict Cause Confusion

  It’s a concept grounded in the psychology of motivation, learning science and growing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). And the hype around it is blowing up. Personalized learning is the No.

• How PortfolioGen Helps Students Create Free Portfolios – Class Tech Tips

  Do your students have fantastic work to share this school year? If your students have a wide range of creations, they can help their work shine with an online portfolio. A digital space to showcase student work opens the possibilities for a wider au…

• Mo Physics Mo Problems: UDL Smackdown

  Fighting the Inertia of a Traditional Classroom

• A Grading Strategy that Puts the Focs on Learning From Mistakes

  The students get their grade a day later on PowerSchool, and they’re given opportunities to retake the test after they’ve digested their mistakes. Alcala also projects “favorite mistakes” on the board that they talk about as a class.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Tools for Creating Custom Maps Without a Google Account

  Google’s My Maps is a great tool for designing custom maps. The problem with it is that students can only save their work if they have Google accounts. If your school uses G Suite for Education that’s probably not a problem, but it is a problem for …

• Powercards: Unit 3 Items – Classroom Powerups

  For the 2018-19 School Year I have completely revamped my Power Card Items. This year I have tied the Items to my narrative. The story concept is that the students’ powers are based on the manipulation of “Primary Source Energy” and each items is ba…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: 10 Sites for Checking Plagiarism

  “Plagiarism is the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work. (wikipedia)”.

• A Supreme Court Justice’s Legacy in Edtech | EdSurge News

• Pear Deck for You! – Teacher Tech

  It’s pretty universal, seeing Pear Deck and falling in love. It allows for making interactive lessons. Not only do they have really cute pear drawings, but their interface is super easy to use.

• The Future Of Education With AR – e-Learning Infographics

  Technology in education has made it possible to add a layer of enhanced reality and interactivity, this gives Teachers/tutors opportunity to make learning more realistic and immersive improving retention and deep learning.

• 3 Ways to Make Literature Real and Relevant – Class Tech Tips

  How can you make curriculum content real, relevant, and approachable? Making student-centered instruction a priority is an important place to start.

• Free Technology for Teachers: CoRubrics – An Add-on to Facilitate Assessment Among Students

  This week I am hosting guest posts. This one was authored by Jaume Feliu at the Salas i Xandri High School in Sant Quirze del Vallès, near Barcelona. More and more rubrics are coming into the classroom for assessment.

• The Importance of Definitions (and Why They Don’t Matter) – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  Yep, paradoxical title alert! Recently I got into a very interesting debate on LinkedIn about the definition of Gamification. Now, I have long had my definition of gamification, one that doesn’t stray too far from the closest thing we have to a “pro…

• Mercedes Schneider: Letter Grades for Schools Are a Measure of the Families’ Income Level | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Jeb Bush had this big idea about how to hold schools accountable: Give them a letter grade based mostly on their test scores.

• What it’s Like to Teach When You Don’t Have Parent Support

  Not all of us are dealing with lawnmower parents. Maybe you read this viral article on lawnmower parents and nodded in agreement. Or maybe, like me, you read the piece and sighed ruefully, thinking, “Champagne problems.

• changing how educators see negative experiences in the classroom

  For example, a fourth-grade teacher I’ll call Jane had been teaching for nine years and was on the verge of dropping out of the profession from exhaustion. She told me, “I just don’t think I can keep this up another year.

• Google Slides Sticky Note Brainstorming Powerful Planning

• Video: “The science behind California’s surging wildfires” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Our discomfort is obviously infinitesimal compared to those who lost their homes – and their lives – due to the Camp Fire. But I have to say the constant hazardous smoke in Northern California is pretty bad, and most schools have prohibited all outd…

• Peers are Powerful

  Since the #MeToo movement, six states have introduced or passed bills to require the teaching of consent in their sex ed classes in K-12. But there’s not yet much research on what kind of education actually works to shift teens’ attitudes and action…

• Important New Video: “The Science of Racism” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The Science of Racism is a new video from YouTube’s “Creators for Change” program. I’m adding it to Revised & Updated: Useful Resources For Learning About Race & Racism.

• 25 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google Docs could do

  tags:google docs tips shortcuts googledocs

• 7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan –

  tags:pbl questions guide implement implementation plan

• CPU VLOG: 11-13 Ranking Up – Classroom Powerups

  Mr. Powley is a 14 year teaching veteran and is currently the dual enrollment American History teacher at the #1 ranked high school in South Carolina. For the last several years he has transformed his classroom based on the principles of game inspir…

• Just a Little Push: Five Ideas for Intervention and Feedback | All Things Assessment

  When you are unsure, not feeling confident, and scared no one will like you, it can be hard to get started. My son, Chase, is a fifth grader, and we signed him up for a basketball camp. He went alone and didn’t know anyone. As can be predicted, he w…

• Celebrate Geography Awareness Week with Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunts – Class Tech Tips

  It’s here! This week is Geography Awareness Week, and I’m excited to share some tech-friendly ideas for exploring the world with your students. Augmented reality scavenger hunts can get your kids moving both inside and outside the classroom.

• The Nerdy Teacher: Adventures in Icelandic Schools #MakerEd #MakerMentality

  The nice part about all of this is that these skills are all transferable to all of the other classes the students attend. Maths, English, Science, etc. are all using Project Based Learning to explore ideas and the students have the skills to create…

• 25 Coding Apps For Kids Under 8 – e-Learning Infographics

  Did you know that coding can help kids develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills? Did you know that you can introduce them to programming at a very early age? Maybe you are looking for a way to make the kids’ screen time a bit more …

• A Guide to Gamification

• Linda Darling-Hammond Vs. Ravitch and Burris on School Choice | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Carol Burris and I wrote a critique of that report, because it seems to endorse the reformers’ idea of a portfolio of charters, public schools, and other choices.

• 10 Ways To Instantly Make Your Blog Better! – The Edublogger

  Your blog might be full of inspiring ideas but are people reading your posts? Are they sticking around and returning when you publish new content? I have the pleasure of reading a lot of blogs as part of my role with Edublogs.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Why did the Catastrophic Camp Fire Start Where it Did?

  The tragic Camp Fire of northern California has killed at least 31 people, destroyed approximately 7000 structures, and basically leveled the retirement community of Paradise, California.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Edji – A Great Tool for Literacy and Critical Thinking

  This week I am welcoming some guest bloggers. This one is from Eric Hills. As a tech coach, I love spending time trying to find tools that are easy to use, can enhance student learning, and are engaging for students. Edji checks all three of those b…

• 4 Skills and Traits Great Schools Teach That Will Always be Essential – The Principal of Change

  Most educators are aware of the “Four C’s” (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication) and their importance in schools for ensuring the development of today’s skills in our students ().

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Presentation Trick Innovative Educators Will Love

  · 4 #EdTech Blogs to Bookmark · 9 Must Read Blogs for Innovative Teachers · 10 Digital Citizenship Bloggers to Follow · 10 Education blogs worth following – eSchool News · 11 Ed Tech Bloggers to Follow · 20 Best Blogs in Instructional Technology · 2…

• A Principal’s Reflections: 3 Shifts to Make Learning Personal

  In education, a lesson makes or breaks a learner’s experience in a classroom. Planning takes time.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some amazing blog posts from last week:

• Math Journals: Pairing a Metacognitive Practice with Adaptive Software |

  An increasing number of school districts are investing in adaptive software to allow students to engage in personalized math practice. I often see students at the elementary level rotate through a station rotation lesson like the one pictured below.

• When Games about the Past Trouble the Present: Games and History, Accuracy, Equity, Representation, and Reality | Gaming the Past

  Over the past few months I have been mulling over some ideas for a set of talks I’m giving in the winter and spring for students, teachers, and parents on historical video games and gameplay as historying, the ways they represent the past, and the i…

• How To Avoid Losing Your Students’ Attention – Smart Classroom Management

  There is a phenomenon I see again and again in the classrooms I visit. They’ll talk and move faster as if trying to finish before completely losing the class.

• Quick Start Guide for Adobe Spark for Education – Class Tech Tips

  Creativity in the classroom is essential across grade levels and subject areas. Students can demonstrate what they’ve learned about a topic, synthesize information, and create a shareable movie, website or graphic with Adobe Spark.

• Getting Started with Applied Digital Skills – Mari Venturino

  Raise your hand if you use any Google Apps (search, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc.) in your personal life? It’s as simple as this blog post, which I drafted on Google Docs, and inserted images and links.

• 6 Appetite-Control Strategies that Helped Me Stop Overeating | MyFitnessPal

  It can be hard not to overeat. You eat a healthy meal at home, think you’re doing well, then you head out (to almost any destination) and are surrounded by junk food. You get hungry, and pretty soon you’re at the local burger joint, diet forgotten.

• 30 ways to make your lessons interactive

• The Changing Roles of Educators – Reading By Example

  My son did not want to practice his trumpet. He was finding anything else to do to avoid this daily task. To be honest, I felt the same way when I was in 6th grade and the novelty of playing the trumpet had worn off after about two weeks.

• GBD Compare | IHME Viz Hub

• Chart Maker for busy people | Chartify

  Chartify’s chart creator currently only supports desktop browsers.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Is Your Feedback Really Effective? – This Google Docs Add-on Will Tell You

  Anyone who has ever spent a Sunday afternoon grading essay after essay has at some point wondered, “did anyone listen when I explained homophones?” This usually happened to me around the 27th essay of the day.

• A Spelling, Grammar and Word Checker for Students – Class Tech Tips

  One of the great things about education technology is how when it is used strategically, it can provide an extra layer of support to students. If you’ve worked with students of any age, you’ve probably heard the same, “How do you spell this?” questi…

• Live Long and Prosper…: Still Teaching From the Grave

  Last month I reread Carl Sagan’s Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the brink of the Millenium. It is Sagan’s last book, published in 1997, the year after he died from the rare bone-marrow disease myelodysplasia.

• Linda Darling-Hammond vs Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris

  I recently published a post by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris titled “Why It Matters Who Governs America’s Public Schools,” which took issue with some parts of a new report — “The Tapestry of American Public Education: How Can We Create a System of …

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Handful of Resources for Learning About Veterans Day

  This Sunday is Veterans Day (many places will observe it on Monday). The following resources can help students understand the origins and meaning of Veterans Day including how it is different from Memorial Day. Bet You Didn’t Know: Veterans Day.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Origins of Ingredients in Thanksgiving Meals

  Last week I shared three Thanksgiving-themed projects that you can do this month. Of course, I have many more Thanksgiving resources bookmarked to share with you. One of those is an interesting video from It’s Okay to be Smart titled The Surprising …

• World War I Ended On Nov. 11th One Hundred Years Ago – Here Are Related Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The centennial of the end of World War I is this weekend. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About World War I.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Build a Body – An Interactive Biology Lesson

  Spend a few minutes using Build a Body and it is easy to understand why it was recognized by the National Science Foundation. In Sponge Lab Biology’s Build a Body students construct a human body system-by-system. To build a body students drag and dr…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Good Tool for Writing Reflections on Stories

  Scholastic’s Character Scrapbook offers a good template that elementary school students can use to write about and reflect on the characters in their favorite stories. The template is quite simple to use. Students enter the name of a story and the n…

• Tech Transformation: Sleep and school start times

  Since moving back to the UK I’ve been living in a village. It’s stating the obvious, I think, to say that village life is very different from living in Mumbai, a city of 22 million people. For me one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is in the…

• 5 mistakes your kids make while thinking historically. (And how you can fix them.) | History Tech

  A big part of what I do every week involves spending time with teachers, especially social studies teachers, leading and having conversations around best practice, instruction, and assessment. And it’s almost always the best part of the week. Think …

• Personalizing the Journey for Our Students – The Principal of Change

  The key to this question is not thinking like you but thinking about your students and their point of view.

• Using Book Creator for Formative Assessment – Class Tech Tips

  What does it look like to check for understanding with digital tools? This is a question I’ve posed to teachers from different corners of the country. When speaking about the use of technology in the classroom, formative assessment is a hot topic.

• Larry Cuban: Who Says Classrooms Never Change? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  One of the favorite lines of Faux Reformers like Bill Gates, Lauren Powell Jobs, Michelle Rhee, etc. is that American schools haven’t changed in a century, maybe two centuries.

• 3 Types Of Motivation – e-Learning Infographics

  Whether its getting to the gym, writing that personal blog post, networking with professionals developing your app and more, we always need motivation to get these things done. Sometimes it’s tough to understand what motivates us best.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Visme – Great Tools for Making Flowcharts and Mind Maps

  Visme is a graphic design tool that I’ve been using off and on for the last five years. Back when I started using Visme it was known as EWC Presenter and it was a good tool for designing slides and infographics. Recently, Visme added new flowchart d…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Knoema – Huge Collections of Data Maps and Charts

  Knoema is a service that offers a huge collection of data sets and maps for public use. Knoema offers data maps and charts for almost every country in the world. There are dozens of data categories to pick from.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How GPS Works

  From finding a place to eat in a new city to navigating a detour to geocaching, GPS is an amazing technology. But just how does GPS work? NASA’s eClips channel on YouTube has a good student-friendly explanation of how GPS works.

• Video: “World’s oldest cave paintings from 40,000 years ago discovered in Indonesia” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  I’m adding this new video (it may look like there’s nothing there, but click on it and it will play) from The Telegraph to The Best Sites For Learning About Prehistoric Cave Paintings:

• Windy: Wind map & weather forecast

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• earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions

  community EarthWindMap earth ≡ Date | Data | Scale | Source | Control | Now « – ‹ – › – » ⊕Grid▷HD Mode | Air – Ocean – Chem – Particulates – Space Height | Sfc – 1000 – 850 – 700 – 500 – 250 – 70 – 10 hPa Overlay | Wind – Temp – RH –

• Why teachers should embrace digital devices in the classroom – UKEdChat

  France’s recent decision to pass a law banning the use of cell phones, tablets and smartwatches at school for children under 15 is just the latest example of moral panic around new digital technologies, according to a University of Alberta education…

• Best Website Builders 2018 – Lab Tested Reviews by PCMag.com

  Getting your message out these days requires good helpings of Facebook and Twitter, with maybe a dash of Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. But that’s not enough: if you want an internet presence that truly represents you or your organizati…

• Shakespeare Unlimited | Folger Shakespeare Library

• Gender myths dispelled by major new maths study – UKEdChat

  A major study into maths attainment has found that boys and girls perform equally in the subject, dispelling long-held myths around gender and education.

• A Strategy for Effective Student Collaboration | Edutopia

  To address the problem of group learning, a team must develop the ability to reflect on itself. Without intentional reflection, members of a team are unlikely to develop a collective sense of what is working and what is not, making improvement unlik…

• Microsoft MakeCode

• ‘Geek Girl’ gamers are more likely to study science and technology degrees – UKEdChat

  Girls who play video games are three times more likely to choose physical science, technology, engineering or maths (PSTEM) degrees compared to their non-gaming counterparts, according to new research from the University of Surrey Girls who play vid…

• NonExamples.com

  A B C Topic:

• All About Explorers

  © 2006–2017 All About Explorers. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress. Designed by

• Quotes and Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing | Discover, Share, Connect

  We are the kids nobody knows We are the kids nobody hears We are the kids nobody listens to. With tears streaming down my face, I could do nothing but sit cross-legged on the sandy shore and stare at the horizon in front of me.

• Silk – Interactive Generative Art

  To save, right click the thumbnail and choose Save Image As…. Silk was made by Yuri Vishnevsky, with music and sound crafted by Mat Jarvis.

• Ba Ba Dum

• IT IS BACK!! To-Do in Google Classroom – Teacher Tech

  One thing that has been driving me bonkers about the new design in Google Classroom is the lack of ability to see if students have submitted work. The Classwork page does not indicate that students have completed work unless I click on the assignmen…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Parts of Speech Quest

  ABCya offers hundreds of fun and educational games for elementary school kids. Parts of Speech Quest is one of the games that was recently featured on ABCya’s homepage. Parts of Speech Quest is a series of nine games that, depending upon your age, w…

• 9 Scientific Reasons Reading Makes You Smarter – e-Learning Infographics

  Other Infographics 9 Scientific Reasons Reading Makes You Smarter Infographic Be more empathetic Once in a while, readers will experience a deep sense of empathy towards fictional characters.

• Getting Into Gamification – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  First off, don’t go my route – it was long and painful! However, there are things I did that will help you to get into it all and get a great understanding of what gamification is all about.

• What The Election Results May Mean For Education | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Yesterday’s election will have a huge impact on education throughout the United States.

• English Learners in STEM Subjects | Science for All

  Overview: The National Academies just released a new consensus study report titled English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools and Lives. Like other reports from The National Academies this report is free as a pdf or to read …

• NGSS Science Assessment Task Screeners | Science for All

  Overview: Achieve recently released two tools for screening and reviewing science assessment tasks- the Science Task Prescreen and the Science Task Screener. These tools will be necessary additions to your toolbox of NGSS assessment resources.

• Tip of the Week: How not to teach the Holocaust & resources for doing it right | History Tech

  Let’s be clear from the get go. It happened. We have hundreds of thousands, millions, of primary sources. We have photos. Government documents. Train timetables. Movies. We’ve got oral histories. Diaries. Letters. Court transcripts. There are prison…

• XP and Spreadsheet Pacer: CPU Vlog 11-5 – Classroom Powerups

  My class just finished up our 2nd unit and students are starting to have some clarification questions about the XP Grading System. I am going on year 5 and thankfully I have some answers! One of their biggest concerns is knowing their “grade”.

• The Dangers Of “Choose Your Own Adventure” Genre For Real & Painful Stories | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  I’m a big fan of Choose Your Own Adventure Games – both having students play them, and having them create ones. That’s why I have The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.

• 7 Ways You Can Make Outdoor Activities Fun For Your Kids – e-Learning Infographics

  Certain lifestyle changes in recent years have influenced the way parents are raising their kids. Back in the day, children would beg their parents to go out in the yard or the playground so that they could play with their friends.

• New Report Says Corporal Punishment Doesn’t Work | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  It’s always a big mind-boggling to me when I share a new resource on corporal punishment – either at school or at home. It is 2018….

• Free Technology for Teachers: A New and Easy ClassDojo Login for Students

  Earlier this fall ClassDojo added new features to their digital portfolio tools for students and teachers. The highlight of those was the option for students to select the items that they want included in their portfolios. ClassDojo calls these stud…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Places to Find Free Music and Sounds for Multimedia Projects

  From adding music to a slideshow to adding sound effects to videos to bumper music for podcasts, there are plenty of classroom projects that require free audio files.

• Free Technology for Teachers: MyBib is Back

  The last time that I wrote about MyBib it was to report that I didn’t have any information about when it would be back online, if ever. That was exactly one month ago.

• Free Technology for Teachers: WWF Together – Revisiting a Favorite App

  The World Wildlife Fund’s Together app has been one of my favorite iPad apps since the first day that I saw it more than five years ago. The app is beautifully designed to show the stories of endangered or threatened animals around the world.

• Civic Responsibility – Reading By Example

  This post is a newsletter I am sending home to our elementary school families. Let me know what you think in the comments! -Matt

• Some Different Ideas to Increase School Sport Participation |

  If I wanted to grow my blog audience, I could probably just write about youth sports, they are typically my most popular posts with anywhere from 2X to 10X the audience as when I write about other topics.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: A Stunning Video of Arizona Monsoon Thunderstorms

  Rarely does one see a weather video so stunning, so poetic, with music and imagery so in sync, and that vividly communicates the beauty and grandeur of the atmosphere . But this week I was privileged to view such a video of southwest U.S. thundersto…

• Gamification has a dark side

  Deep under the Disneyland Resort Hotel in California, far from the throngs of happy tourists, laundry workers clean thousands of sheets, blankets, towels and comforters every day.

• Steps Teachers Can Take to Enhance Learning With Technology – Class Tech Tips

  If you’ve ever walked across a conference expo hall or scrolled through your Pinterest feed, bright and shiny technology can instantly grab your attention. Making sure a new piece of technology or compelling digital resource is a good fit for your s…

• 5 ideas for creating an interactive classroom

• Creating An Exhibition Of Learning: Sparks & Stories – The Edublogger

  All children have extraordinary stories to tell if we take the time to listen. All children have gifts and talents. Our job is to create opportunities and experiences that allow children to find themselves.

• Yes, I’m Telling You to Be Grateful for Stress – Technology Pursuit

  It’s been a stressful past two weeks. I was senior sponsor for Homecoming. We’ve had daily rehearsals for our one-act play.

• 3 Ways to Develop Leaders in Your School or Classroom – The Principal of Change

  I used to get teased mercilessly by some saying that everyone in education can be a “leader.” If you think of leadership in the traditional context, it is more about positions of authority than it is about ability.

• A Principal’s Reflections: What Learners Really Need

  A great deal has changed since I began writing this blog back in 2009. For starters, my primary device to connect on Twitter was a Blackberry. I didn’t even have a Facebook page until a year later.

• To Learn, Students Need to DO Something | Cult of Pedagogy

  I first became aware that there might be a problem a few years ago, when one of my kids was studying weather systems: high- and low-pressure systems, cold fronts and warm fronts. We were trying to help her prepare for a test and also do some sort of…

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Another batch of great posts from this past week:

• Free Technology for Teachers: 4 Ways to Play Seterra’s Online Geography Games

  Geography Awareness Week is a coming up later this month. If you find yourself looking for some geography games for your students to play, take a look at what Seterra has to offer. Seterra offers hundreds of geography games in 34 languages.

• Grateful to Hit the Reset Button – Classroom Powerups

  In the B.C. years of my marriage (that is Before Children) my wife and I rocked Guitar Hero. Neither of us play guitar but ability to pretend to be rockers, enjoy the music, and just be goofy with each other got us through some tough times. We were …

• Let’s Talk About Reading Logs Again – Pernille Ripp

  Let’s talk about reading logs for a moment.  Yes, I know I have gone down this path before, but it bears repeating because not a week goes by without someone asking about them.  Asking how they can speak to their child’s teacher about the reading lo…

• Maker Marvelous: Book Page Pumpkins

  Book Page Pumpkins At the beginning of the school year I started my 9th year as a high school media specialist (14th year as a media specialist overall).

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use QR Codes to Share Animated Videos

  Earlier this week I answered an email from a reader who had heard someone talk about using QR codes so that people could watch animations made by students.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two Online Primary Source Document Activities for High School Students

  Earlier this week the Library of Congress launched a new crowdsourcing project called Crowd. The project seeks volunteers to transcribe primary source documents that are available online through the Library of Congress. Crowd is similar to the Smith…

• New Downloadable Version of the Gamification Inspiration Cards On Sale – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  Hey there you lovely people. I’ve decided to release a downloadable version of my Gamification Inspiration Cards as I know that the printed ones can get expensive and take ages.

• So where are we with ‘digital citizenship’ now? – NetFamilyNews.org | NetFamilyNews.org

  This week I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion in Delhi at Facebook’s South Asia Safety Summit with YLAC India (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship).

• Arizona: Parents Use Voucher Money for Personal Purchases, Not Education | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Arizona’s State Auditor identified more than $700,000 in voucher money that was mis-spent for cosmetics, music, movies, clothing, sports apparel, and other personal items. Some even tried to withdraw cash with their state-issued debit cards. The sta…

• 18 ways to go gradeless

• All the World’s a Classroom: Adventures of a Crazy English Teacher: A Lesson From the Leaves

  I was driving one day and noticed something that I had never noticed before. There was a row of green trees with one tree that had already turned for the fall and was bright red. These trees were obviously on different time tables.

• Classroom Games and Tech: Team Building Video Challenge for High School

  Here’s a team building exercise I created for our high school video announcements team when we started the new semester. I loosely based it on a very fun, creative game we used to play, back before everyone carried around video cameras (and high pow…

• Level Up Your Talent With Gamification In Talent Management

  Remember when we played Scrabble, competing to put the best words forward? The competitive streak to excel and prove your vocabulary sought to improve the proper use of words during conversations and eventually taught us to be better in communicatio…

• Two Riddles for Problem Solving

  Riddles are a great way to get kids thinking logically, testing predictions, using math and even collaborating. They’re fun and often quite challenging.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: 15 Sites for Differentiated Instruction

  “Differentiated instruction and assessment (also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation) is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing students with different avenues to acquiring con…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Math Run: Panda Chase

  Math Run: Panda Chase is a super fun iOS app for grades K-5th learning basic Math skills (i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.) This game follows the familiar “running” game-style and has students avoiding obstacles while solving Math pr…

• Modeling Collaboration | Mike Kaechele

  This is the sixth and final post in a series where I flesh out why the ideal traits of a PBL teacher are important. Check out the links to the rest of the series below the post. Traditionally teaching has been an isolated occupation.

• www.meridianstories.com

  Welcome to Meridian Stories, a national non-profit that offers schools curriculum-based ‘Challenges’ in Language Arts, History, Math and Science. Students work in teams to produce creative digital stories in response to the Challenges, and compete w…

• The Nerdy Teacher: Don’t Forget the A when talking STEM #MakerEd

  One of the things that has bothered me over the years has been the dismissal of the Arts as part of an important, well-rounded education. I don’t want to think that it has been intentional, but I do know that many schools around the country will cut…

• Free Technology for Teachers: It’s Time to Change the Clocks

  I’m one of those rare people who actually likes turning the clocks back in the fall. Sure, it means that it gets dark earlier, but I’m an early riser and like seeing the sun in the morning.

• Google Keep: Toggle List View – Teacher Tech

  Google Keep (keep.google.com) is a note app, like Post-it ®️ notes. Make sure you have the Google Keep app on your phone. Handy when you want to make a bulleted list, to do list, or take a picture of where you parked.

• Learning From Games: Onboarding and Mario – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  I’ve probably mentioned this in the past, but Super Mario (for me) has one of the best on-boarding experiences of any game I’ve ever played. But let’s start at the beginning.

• “‘Add More Positives’ When Your Classroom Goes South” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  A three-part series on classroom management is wrapped up by Julia Thompson, Rebecca Alber, Madeline Whitaker Good, Stuart Ablon, Alisha Pollastri, Allen Mendler, and Kelly Wickham Hurst. I’ve also included many responses from readers. I’m adding it…

• Here Are Answers To The Question Many Teachers Will Be Asked: “Am I Still Going To Be A Citizen?” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  As if our students and their families don’t have enough to worry about, President Trump today added to their list of concerns when he said he would end birthright citizenship by Executive Order. The Citizenship Clause Means What It Says is from The …

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: The 5 Ways Tech is Shaping Humans in the Digital Age

  In a presentation titled Constantly Connected – The Role of Humans in the Digital Revolution, Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush shared with attendees at the 2018 #GovTechLive Forum five ways technology is shaping humans in the digital age.

• Failing and Reflecting: 10-30-18 CPU Vlog – Classroom Powerups

  Mr. Powley is a 14 year teaching veteran and is currently the dual enrollment American History teacher at the #1 ranked high school in South Carolina. For the last several years he has transformed his classroom based on the principles of game inspir…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Insert Equations and Special Characters Into Google Documents

  Here’s a question that I get a lot when I conduct on-site G Suite for Education training, “is there an easy way to add math symbols to documents?” In fact, there is an easy way to add mathematics symbols, equations, and other special characters to G…

• Google Classroom Comment Bank vs. Setting Your Preferences in Google Docs |

  I was excited in August when Google Classroom got an upgrade. The feature I was most excited about was the Google Classroom comment bank.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: 3 Programs & 3 Strategies to Retain Millennials

  Millennial expert Gabrielle Bosché spoke to attendees at the 2018 #GovTechLive forum to share advice for those wanting to retain millennial staff. If you’re an innovative educator you care about this because these are your colleagues (or yourself) a…

• Parent Communication Isn’t What It Once Was. | My Island View

  In a recent #Edchat discussion we discussed whether or not schools should encourage teachers to use technology to reach out in communication with parents.

• Shapes 3D Augmented Reality Geometry Drawing App – Class Tech Tips

  I’m always excited to meet folks who are passionate about educational technology. At ISTE this past June, I met Milena Piasecka a Product Manager for the company Shapes at the end of one of my sessions.

• ghostmaster25 game design portfolio

• Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Halloween Lesson Resources

  Halloween is just two days away. If you’re looking for some Halloween-themed lessons, take a look at the following resources that I featured earlier this month.

• Guest Blogger: Mary Gross – Tension and Fear | CUNY Games Network

  This week, we feature the first entry in a four-part series by guest blogger Mary Gross, Associate Professor of History at Marian University of Wisconsin, who has been designing games for history, political science, sociology, and first year studies…

• Schools Matter: The case against intensive phonics

  Submitted to the New York Times, Oct. 26, 2018 In “Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way?” (Oct 26) Emily Hanford says the research supports systematic intensive phonics, a method that teaches all the rules of phonics in a strict order to …

• Podcasting in the Classroom? Here’s a Byte-Sized Option – Class Tech Tips

  I’m not exactly sure how it started, but once I got hooked, there was no turning back. Podcasting is a powerful medium and a way to consume a wide range of content.

• What Does Improvement Science Look Like in Classrooms?

  Teachers in the BMTN choose to focus on deepening their students’ abilities in one of three areas: connect, justify and solve. They are grouped with other algebra teachers at schools across New England working on the same skill.

• Learning with ‘e’s: Head, hand and heart

• Embed A Google Photos Album Into A Website – The Edublogger

  Google Photos is my favorite photo and video sharing and storage service. My phone is set to automatically upload photos to Google Photos in high resolution when I’m connected to WiFi.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.