Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are my last blog post picks for 2018!

• Schrodinger’s Grades – Classroom Powerups

  My son started 3rd grade this year and, in South Carolina at least, this is a big deal because this is the first year he gets number grades. My son is bright, artistic, and sensitive but this has been a challenging transition.

• Take the Manage out of Classroom Management |

  When I lead blended learning workshops or coach teachers implementing blended learning, I get a lot of questions about classroom management.

• Seattle City Light WindWatch

  906 WHUS76 KSEW 180400 MWWSEW URGENT – MARINE WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 900 PM PDT TUE OCT 17 2017 PZZ150-153-156-170-173-176-181200- /O.CON.KSEW.SC.Y.0253.000000T0000Z-171018T1100Z/ /O.CON.KSEW.GL.W.0075.

• A Lever and a Place to Stand: Google Classroom or Google Sites: Which Should I Use?

  Maybe as you rev up for 2019, you have considered creating a digital classroom to support your physical classroom. Or maybe you would like a way to stop answering so many questions about materials and due dates. Or maybe you have just been wondering…

• Japan allows commercial whaling, withdraws from international pact | Watching Our Water Ways

  Frustrated by international condemnation over its whaling activities, the Japanese government has decided to allow commercial whaling outright within its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Make Your Own Emojis – And How to Use Them in a Lesson

  During the summer Tony Vincent helped me see emojis as more than just annoying symbols that people use in text messages and social media posts. He did that with a slick graphic that he created and shared on Twitter.

• How to Use the Flipgrid iPad app

  Flipgrid is a great service for gathering video responses from your students. One of the best things about Flipgrid is that students can use it on any computer, phone, or tablet including iPads. And the iPad app is completely free to install and use.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Canvas – A Good Alternative to Google Drawings for Tablet Users

  Canvas is a new drawing tool from Google. Canvas is a great alternative to Google Drawings for iPad and Android tablet users. Canvas lets anyone create a drawing in his or her web browser by simply going to Canvas.apps.chrome. Once there you can sta…

• 10 steps to take when talking politics with someone you disagree with this holiday season – The Lily

  Having meaningful conversations with people we care about who disagree with you about politics is hard. It can feel like a concession to something you hate, or even like giving up a part of yourself to just sit calmly and listen to someone explain t…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Videezy – Free Video Clips for Multimedia Projects

  Last week I shared a video overview of three great places to find free video clips to use in classroom projects. Videezy is another good site to add to that list. Videezy offers more than 1,000 video clips that you can download for free. The videos …

• European Union charges forward to reduce dangerous plastic litter | Watching Our Water Ways

  By 2021, the 28 countries in the European Union are expected to ban single-use plastics — including straws, plates, cutlery and drink stirrers, as well as plastic sticks for cotton swabs, balloons and candy.

• A Principal’s Reflections: 3 Questions to Help Make the Most Out of the Money You Have

  –> I hope the question above gets you thinking. Educational institutions around the world spend billions of dollars on textbooks, curriculum, programs, technology, and professional development. I’m sure I missed some categories, but you get the poi…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are this past week’s collection of great blog posts! Happy Holidays!

• Free Technology for Teachers: An Extensive Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

  On Sunday I published a guide to locating media for use in classroom projects. In that guide I provided basic summaries of the concepts of public domain, Creative Commons, and fair use. In the section on fair use I referenced Stanford University Lib…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Terrible Passwords, Password Security, and Protecting Your Online Account

  Last week Splash Data revealed their annual list of worst passwords of the year. Many of those passwords will not be a surprise. Using “123456” and common words or names as your password is always a terrible idea.

• PALMS Backchannel Chat | The new alternative to Todaysmeet

• Lisa Eggert Litvin: Teen Suicide and High-Stakes Testing LINK ADDED | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  I’m reposting this because it was inexplicably cut off. Here is the full original….. A decade ago, California parent Vicki Abeles created a documentary called “Race to Nowhere” about the toxic effects of high-stakes testing. She did it after a frien…

• 10 Chromebook Strategies

• Control Alt Achieve: 20 Awesome Add-ons for Google Docs

  Google Docs is a powerful word processing program with many unique features including voice typing, the Explore tool, Version History, web fonts, and much more. However, Google knows that even with all of those features, Docs may not be able to do e…

• Fun with Spreadsheets: A Video Tour of my Grade Books – Classroom Powerups

  I was working on my interactive maps and realized that I needed to get a few other things ready for second semester. I ended up falling into a rabbit hole with my Gamifed Gradebook and the students’ Personalized Grade sheets and just had to share th…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Flipgrid on an iPad

  Last week I published a detailed tutorial on how to get started using Flipgrid in your classroom. In that tutorial I focused on using Flipgrid in the web browser on Mac, Windows, and Chrome OS computers. Students can also use Flipgrid on iPads.

• Learning Foundational Game Design Skills: Research, Sketching, Process | David Mullich

  I just accepted a teaching position at the ArtCenter College of Design, a very well regarded college in Pasadena, California offering undergraduate and graduate programs in a wide variety of art and design fields.

• Three VR iPad Apps for Social Studies Lessons

  Ever since Google launched Expeditions a few years ago every educational technology conference that I’ve been to has included sessions about virtual reality in the classroom. I’ve even given a few of those presentations.

• A Guide to Finding Media for Classroom Projects – Practical Ed Tech

  Last week I received an email from a former colleague who had received a copyright infringement notice for something she posted on a classroom blog eight year ago! She’s not alone. Every year I hear from teachers who have received similar notices.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Hide Google Classroom Assignments from Your Personal Calendar

  Last week I received an email from a reader who needed a little problem with her personal Google Calendar. The problem was that every assignment that she posted in Google Classroom was also showing up on her Google Calendar. This isn’t a big deal if…

• Measurement Activity: Google Sheets for Littles – Teacher Tech

  This spreadsheet template is for younger students to practice measuring and counting. This is an adaptation of a worksheet which had pictures of clip art next to blocks where the students counted the blocks.

• 5 E’s Lesson Plan Template for Math – Teacher Tech

  The 5 E’s lesson plan template is relatively new, did not exist when I was in my teacher prep program (or at least to my knowledge.) It was specifically designed for math and science but is a great outline for any subject area.

• 84% of teen girls in the UK play video games in their spare time | GamesIndustry.biz

  Young women and girls are becoming even more interested than they already were not just in playing games, but also watching the professionals play them.

• Affinity Spaces: What Video Games and Virtual PLNs Can Teach Educators About Informal Learning – Shaelynn Farnsworth

  On any given night, you can find my children (grades 5 & 9) along with millions of others, playing video games. From Fortnite, to Minecraft, to Roblox; many hours are logged in these virtual spaces playing… and also learning.

• King Tides don’t always follow the tide tables | Watching Our Water Ways

  Higher-than-predicted marine waters, brought about in part by recent weather conditions, have given us unexpected “King Tides” in many areas of Puget Sound.

• Guest Post – Classroom Management: Redirecting without Escalating – Circling Back (Part Two) | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Phillip Taylor is an educator of 18 years. He wrote the English portion of the IB application and developed the IB curriculum for the English A1 program at his school site.

• Digital Citizenship: Where Are We Now? – Ideas and Thoughts

  This tweet was initiated by a few folks who are very smart and who do really good work. I’m seeing a shift in the way SM is being positioned by educators. 10 years ago SM was seen as a powerful way to connect with the world and share learning. We ha…

• Most educators do not have ‘change fatigue’ | @mcleod | Dangerously Irrelevant

  As schools and classrooms, why do we exist today? What do we believe? What are our values? What are our deepest commitments to the children we serve? And do we live all of that? Without coherent, clearly communicated answers to those questions, no s…

• Control Alt Achieve: Write Better with Writer’s Highlighter Add-on for Docs

  Writing is a process, not a one-and-done event. When a student is writing their first draft, it is important that they simply get their ideas out, mistakes and all. After that brain dump, now comes the work of editing and revising. The tool is a fre…

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Tornado Strikes Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula

  Tornadoes are relatively rare in Washington State, generally with 2-3 weak ones per year. But today, something very rare occurred a midwinter tornado of moderate strength, perhaps as high as EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

• Winter Break Challenge Game – Teacher Tech

  Holiday break is upon us! If your idea of relaxing is learning something new I have a list of challenges you might want to try this winter break. I have over 50 activities on the spreadsheet! Find a link in column I with more information. Put an X i…

• Helping Students See Real-World Applications for Economics | EdSurge News

• Draw a line in the snow: using tech with kids around the holidays

  In just a few days, most kids will be out of school for the holiday break. And while you and your family might be building snowmen and hanging out by the fire, the extra free time means your kids will also be spending more time on their devices.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Coming Soon – PIN Access to Google Drive Files

  Sharing Google Drive files with people who don’t have Google accounts is possible if you set the file to “anyone with the link can view.” However, that’s not a great option if the file contains information that you don’t want the entire world to be …

• Free Technology for Teachers: Six Resources for Learning About the Science of Flight

  Yesterday marked the 115th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane flight. That reminded me that I have a bunch of interesting resources for learning about the development of and science of flight.

• Math Anxiety on Mindshift

  But new research from Beilock and her team shows that parents don’t have to overcome their fear of math to help their child succeed, as long they changed their attitudes about the subject.

• Towards Creating an Open Definition of Gamification – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  Ok, so here we are again, looking at the definition of gamification. I have defined it a few times, as have many others. However, this time I am approaching it from a slightly different angle.

• Interactive Map: A Half Baked Idea (video) – Classroom Powerups

  I have been trying to figure out a way to create an Interactive Map that students can explore and go questing on. At minimum I am hoping to create something like a Super Mario Bros. World Map that shows a general path towards an objective and a few …

• What I’ve Learned From Coaching An Esports Team • Teched Up Teacher

  If you’re like me, conversations about streamers like Ninja and Fortnite dances like Orange Justice have taken over your classroom. That’s because gaming, especially esports, has hit the cultural tipping point and become mainstream. Esports, the ter…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Quick Tip About Changing Font Sizes in Google Docs

  When it comes to formatting your documents Google Docs provides plenty of options. Some of those options are obvious and some are hidden deep in the menus of Google Docs. Here’s one that falls somewhere in between those ends of the spectrum.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use a Spreadsheet to Create a Map

  Last week when I posted about Google closing Fusion Tables I mentioned that some of the functions of Fusion Tables can be replicated in Google Sheets. An example of that is creating a map based on the data in a Google Sheet.

• The Adventure Blog: Video: Inside a 4000-Year Old Tomb Discovered in Egypt

  Egypt is a land that is already blessed with some of the most stunning archaeological sites found anywhere on the planet, but now you can add another one to the list.

• NASA Press Release – Cube Sats

  A series of new CubeSats now are in space, conducting a variety of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, following launch Sunday of Rocket Lab’s first mission for NASA under a Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) contract.

• Amusing Monday: TED Ed video features Southern Resident orcas | Watching Our Water Ways

  Last week, a new animation was posted online describing the matriarchal social structure of our beloved killer whales, in which elder females serve as guides for generations of their living descendants. (See first video.)

• Free Technology for Teachers: 21 Places to Find Media for Classroom Projects

  Yesterday, people who subscribe to the Practical Ed Tech newsletter received a copy of my guide to finding copyright-friendly media for use in classroom projects. The guide includes explanations of Public Domain, Creative Commons, and Fair Use.

  
  

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great blog posts from this past week:

• • African Elephant – Change Over Time |

    This activity was created for an evolution unit in an intro biology class (1 semester class) where I wanted to include a little bit of ecology and conservation science.

  • How To Handle Students Who Question Your Classroom Management – Smart Classroom Management

    It can feel, depending on their tone of voice, disrespectful. It can feel as if they’re trying to put you on the spot. Or make you squirm.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Kids US Atlas – Learn About Animals of the United States

    Kids US Atlas is an iPad app that features an interactive map of the United States. On the interactive map you will find twenty-five animals that are indigenous to the United States. Tap on the animals to read about them, to hear about them, and to …

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Make Videos Autoplay in Google Slides

    Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who wanted to know if it was possible to make videos automatically play in Google Slides. It is possible to do that if you set the video properties to automatically play when slides advance.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: DIY Emojis

    Emoji Builder is a fun little site for making your own emojis. To design your own emoji on Emoji Builder you simply pick a base face then add on eyes, mouth, and accessories from menus on the site. When you’re done designing your emoji you can downl…

  • Fun Apps for Designing and Printing Characters to Tell Stories

    Years ago I learned about the Foldify iPad app from one of my students who had used to create characters and buildings that he printed on thick paper then folded into shape.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Math is Visual – Videos Demonstrations and Illustrations

    Math is Visual is a website that features videos and images that are designed to help students understand mathematics concepts. There’s more to the site than just some videos and pictures. With every video you will find written directions for using …

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Introduction to Using Google Expeditions in Your Classroom

    Google Expeditions is one of my favorite virtual reality apps for students and teachers. The app provides hundreds of virtual reality experiences for students. There are VR experiences that can be used in social studies, science, and art classes.

  • Found Data

    However, in 2018 the shirt was kelly green which drew me in, as green is my favourite colour. I read the price tag and learned that “the shirt” is a student initiative and the proceeds go back into student activities and assistance. At $18 USD it wa…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Reminder – Empty Your Google Drive Trash Bin

    People who use Google Drive through a G Suite for Education account don’t have to worry about running out of storage space as G Suite for Education provides unlimited storage.

  • Respect difficult problems | Seth’s Blog

    They’re difficult because they resist simple solutions. Glib answers and over-simplication have been tried before, and failed. People have tried all of the obvious solutions. They haven’t worked. That’s why we’ve resorted to calling them difficult p…

  • 10 Teacher-Tested Strategies to Engage Reluctant Writers – John Spencer

    A few years ago, my son opened a Google Document and started typing. I asked him about it and his eyes lit up as he described the shared story he was writing with classmates. This was the first day of summer break but he was choosing to write for fu…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Try Pexels Videos to Find Green Screen Backgrounds

    Making green screen videos can be a fun way for students to share what they’ve learned through research about a place or event. And it’s a great way for kids to make their own weather forecast and newscast videos.

  • Geometric Constructions as puzzles – The Reflective Educator

    Geometric constructions are amongst my favourite things to teach in Geometry. Why? I see each geometric construction as a puzzle to be solved and I love watching children solve puzzles and share their solutions to those puzzles.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: WWF Free Rivers – An Interactive, Augmented Reality Story About Rivers

    WWF Free Rivers is a free augmented reality iPad app produced by the World Wildlife Foundation. The app uses augmented reality to present a story about rivers. In the app students learn about the importance of free-flowing rivers in world.

  • Mo Physics Mo Problems: The Fast & The FabLaburios

    Fighting the Inertia of a Traditional Classroom

  • Free Technology for Teachers: A Couple of Thoughts About Flipgrid Stickers

    A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference to present on the topic of formative assessment. Flipgrid was one of the tools that I mentioned in my presentation. After my presentation a nice woman asked me for my thoughts about the stickers and drawin…

  • Gamification – Integrating Game Mechanics into Your Teaching | CoreyRayJones

    Have you earned Gold status using the Starbucks app? Are you one of the 100 million monthly active users on Waze? Do you have a Fitbit or work towards closing your rings on your Apple Watch? Have you tried to learn a language using an app like Duoli…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: An Update on FormRecycler – And How to Use It

    This morning I received a question from a viewer of my YouTube channel. The question was about the Google Forms add-on called FormRecycler. The viewer was attempting to use the add-on but was repeatedly getting the following error message, “Error: R…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Try Flipgrid as an Alternative to a Classroom YouTube Channel

    Whenever I lead a workshop or webinar about classroom video projects I always talk about the importance of respectfully sharing students’ videos online. That often leads into discussions about YouTube privacy settings and alternatives to using YouTu…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Wonderscope – An Interactive Story App for Kids

    Wonderscope is an iPad app that uses augmented reality featuring stories that students interact with through voice and touch. Students position animations and interact with story animations by moving their iPads and reading the lines that appear on …

  • Bridge the Gap: The NCCE ISTE Educator Certification – NCCE’s Tech Savvy Teacher Blog

    “The geography of our organization now depends on where you’re standing,” says Dr. Heidi Rogers. Technology bridges the gap that geography makes wide. When teaching and learning span the world, how do you plan and assess success? That’s where the IS…

  • The Guide to Google Drive Sharing

    Kasey Bell is an award-winning digital learning consultant, speaker and blogger with a passion for technology and learning. Kasey offers engaging staff development for all levels of educators, specializing in training, presentations, keynote speakin…

  • Simplify Technology with Limits : zen habits

    It’s designed to do that: tech companies are motivated to keep our attention in their apps, their websites, their devices.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: A Searchable Index of G Suite Updates

    If you want to keep up with every update that Google makes to G Suite for Education, take a look at the What’s New in G Suite? searchable index. What’s New in G Suite? is a table of recent updates and changes to all of the core G Suite products. You…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Free Math Lesson Plans from NASA

    Space Math is a NASA website containing space-themed math lessons for students in elementary school through high school. You can search for lessons according to grade level or mathematics topic. The bulk of the materials seem to be PDFs of direction…

  • 7 things our kids should be learning in history class. Or not. | History Tech

    In a couple weeks, me and 18 other social studies teachers, district level curriculum coordinators, state education consultants, and other assorted interested individuals will get together to rewrite the state’s social studies standards. Rewrite is …

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Speakd – Listen to Your Google Docs

    Speakd is a free Google Docs add-on that will read your documents aloud. When you have Speakd installed in Google Docs you can open the add-on and press play at any time to hear your document read aloud.

  • Top Chef: Create a Fun Gamified PD “Event” for Your Teachers

    Allison Starling has an awesome idea for teacher professional development! She creates two “PD Events” at different times during the year and creates a game to encourage learning at her school. I loved this idea so much that I’m using it at my schoo…

  • Control Alt Achieve: Learning Music, Art, Science, Math and more with Chrome Music Lab

    When I used to teach middle school math, one unit I always loved to do each year was my “Music and Math” unit. We explored lots of connections between music and math, while learning about fractions, exponents, prime factorization, and more.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: A Fun App for Learning About Money

    Money Math Duel is an iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn to count currency. The app is unique in that it allows two students to use it at the same time. Students place the iPad between them and each has his or her own end of th…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Getting Started with G Suite – Mysteries Solved with This New eBook

    This is a guest post from Avra Robinson (@AvraRachel), Director of Online Learning for EdTechTeacher.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: PBS Kids ScratchJr – Scratch With a PBS Twist

    PBS Kids ScratchJr is a PBS Kids-themed version of the popular ScratchJr app. PBS Kids ScratchJr is available as a free iPad app and as a free Android app. The app is designed to help five to eight year old students learn basic programming concepts …

  • Why Engagement is Crucial to Empowerment but Empowerment is Still the Goal – The Principal of Change

    I have written about engagement and empowerment often in the last few years, and it is something that I am passionate about in education.

  • A Principal’s Reflections: The Skinny on Hashtags

    Upon getting on Twitter in 2009, I was not only baffled about how to use the social media site but also about all the symbols associated with it. There was no apparent rhyme or reason to using these in any messages whether long or short. One of them…

  • Reclaiming Handwriting – Pernille Ripp

    Every year it seems as if spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have become a little harder for students to master.  Despite the great lessons they have had before.

  • Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Alexa, Google Home, or HomePod: Easy Peasy Guide to Determining What’s Right For You

    If you’re an innovative educator you might be wondering which device is best to set up your smart home or classroom.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are this past week’s list of great blog posts!

• • Free Technology for Teachers: An Easy Way to Convert PDFs Into Word Documents

    From time to time we all need to convert a document from one format to another. There are lots of online tools that will do that for you. Perhaps the simplest one that I’ve tried is a service called Easy PDF.

  • Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Extempore

    Extempore is an innovative new app (iOS/Google Play) for Foreign Language instructors. Extempore makes it easy for teachers to manage student’s audio and visual assignments.

  • Control Alt Achieve: Social Studies Links

    As I come across useful tech integration resources each month, I collect them together by subject area. Below is a Google Doc with the latest resources, news, blog posts, links, and other helpful technology integration items collected relevant to So…

  • Manage Multiple Google Accounts – Teacher Tech

    If you are like me, you have more than one Google account. You may have your G Suite account from school plus your personal Gmail account. I was working with a teacher the other day and we were trying to create a TemplateTab.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Four Podcasting Tutorials – From Basic to Robust

    Earlier this morning I shared news about NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge that starts in January. While NPR does provide some good guides for students and teachers to use to plan podcasts, those guides don’t include tutorials on specific podcast reco…

  • 25 Reasons to Use TED-Ed in Your Classroom – Class Tech Tips

    How do roller coasters affect your body? Why don’t poisonous animals poison themselves? These are the type of questions tackled with the amazing TED-Ed videos for students and teachers!

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Adobe Spark to Create Videos

    Since the first day that it launched two and a half years ago, I knew that Adobe Spark would be a great tool for students to use to create videos. Like any good product it has evolved over the last couple of years by adding more features without eli…

  • Control Alt Achieve: 10 Writing Prompt Tools for Creative Inspiration

    I love writing… blog posts, stories, poems, and more. As much as I love it though, writing can be a challenge. Often one of the most difficult parts is just getting started. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration, a jump start to get us thinkin…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Edit the Captions on Your YouTube Videos

    This morning on Twitter I was asked about the possibility of editing the captions that are automatically generated by the Google Slides captioning tool.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Free Environment Data Fact Sheets and Posters from the UN

    The United Nations Environment Program offers a series of free posters based on data from the UNEP’s Geo Data Portal. These posters use charts, graphs, and maps to display information about environmental data.

  • What are the positive effects of video games on students’ academic performance? – Classcraft Blog

    If you’ve heard that video games rot your brain, think again! Video games have many positive effects on students’ academic performance, but some educators are still largely unaware of these awesome outcomes. Guess what? These effects are backed by s…

  • Teachers Urged to Instill Assignments with ‘Choice and Relevancy’ — THE Journal

    A new report from the Education Trust looks at the role of two “powerful levers” — choice and relevancy — in motivating and engaging students. This national nonprofit works on issues that disproportionately affect students from low-income families a…

  • McNeil Island becoming known for fish and wildlife, not just prison | Watching Our Water Ways

    If you’ve heard of McNeil Island, you are probably thinking of a former federal or state prison in South Puget Sound — not the rare and exclusive habitat that has won high praise from fish and wildlife biologists.

  • Real teaching means real learning: Trig Ratios animated

    What do you notice? What do you wonder? After some conversations show them this one, with the side lengths being shown and ask again: What do you notice? What do you wonder? Lastly, show them this image and ask them “How could we analyze this?” Some…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: 120 Free Winter-themed Reading Lesson Plans

    ReadWorks is an excellent service that provides teachers with free reading lesson plans. ReadWorks offers lesson plans that can be used in classrooms from Kindergarten through 12th grade. All of the lessons are standards-aligned.

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add Videos to Google Slides Without Using YouTube

    This morning I received an email from a reader who wanted to know if it was possible for his students to add their personal videos to Google Slides presentations without having to use YouTube.

  • Microsoft OneDrive – Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online.

  • Colleges Seeking Diversity

    Private colleges across the county have embraced this method: Amherst College in Massachusetts hosts job fairs and open houses for community college students; the University of Southern California has one of the largest transfer programs among elite…

  • Our Mock Caldecott List 2019 – Pernille Ripp

    After winter break, we welcome our students back with one of our favorite units of the year; our Mock Caldecott unit.  And while I have blogged about the process before, I see this as a great oppor…

  • Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: An Idea for Standards-Based Grading with 3D Science Standards (Part 4 of a series)

    Continuing with the standards-based grading (SBG) theme, I wanted to share one idea on how I might structure a system and one possible modification to that plan. As I noted before, I haven’t found an SBG system that I feel frames the outcomes quite …

  • Tech Resources for Your Next Science Experiment – Class Tech Tips

    Can an iPad help out with a science experiment? What role does a Chromebook play in the science classroom? Well, this month I hosted a webinar for SimpleK12 that tackled these questions. And I wanted to share all of the favorites from the webinar wi…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Resources for Teaching and Learning About Pearl Harbor

    This week is the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn’t the first military action of the Japanese during WWII. It’s just the event that finally got the U.S. to join the war.

  • Live Long and Prosper…: Listen to This

    Recent quotes and comments… Public schools didn’t cause poverty, but policymakers expect schools to overcome all the out-of-school factors related to living in poverty. When was the last time legislators were graded A-F by the state government?

  • New Climate Change Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

    The United Nations Climate Change conference is going on in Poland this week. Five myths about climate change is from The Washington Post.

  • Hamilton, music, and the power of emotion to engage your learners | History Tech

    Almost exactly three years ago, away back in 2015, I wrote a short post about the Hamilton musical. My kids have a standing order that requires them to keep me updated with the latest pop culture from the youths.

  • When A Student Learns To Code – The Edublogger

    This week, students around the world are participating in ‘Hour of Code‘ as part of Computer Science Education Week (December 3-8). Learning to code can be life changing for students which is why I’d like to introduce you to our colleague who is an …

  • Free Lessons for Teaching Computer Science on Ditch That Textbook

  • Control Alt Achieve: Self-Checking Assessments in Google Sheets with Conditional Formatting

    There are so many excellent tools for online assessment including Google Forms, Quizlet, Kahoot, Flippity, Quizizz, and more. In addition to providing teachers with data on student performance, online quizzes can also be valuable simply for student …

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Bensound to Download Free Music

    A couple of weeks ago I posted a short review of a site called Bensound that hosts about 175 free instrumental music tracks that you can download for free. You can down the music for free and re-use it in classroom video projects provided that you f…

  •  Why a Hacker Exploited Printers to Make PewDiePie Propaganda | WIRED

    By now, you’ve probably heard of PewDiePie, a Swedish comedian and video game commentator who has been the most followed creator on YouTube for years. But you might not be as familiar with T-Series, an almost equally popular Indian media company.

  • I Am Connected, Therefore I Learn |

    Is it possible to learn without being connected to a network of other people?Click To Tweet Before technology redefined the way information is developed, organized, shared, and archived, it might have been possible for an individual to learn without…

  • Free Technology for Teachers: How to Upload Videos to Reply to Flipgrid Topics

    I love Flipgrid for the ease with which students can record videos with their webcams to reply to prompts that you give them. But not every student likes to appear on camera. And not every Flipgrid topic has to be a free-form response.

  • Innovative Science Teaching in Grades 6-12 @coolcatteacher

    Isabella Liu is a science teacher in Hong Kong who is using technology with her grade 6-12 classrooms. From augmented reality to game-based learning and online portfolios, she has a variety of ideas to share about how she amps up her science teachin…

  • Tom Ultican: An Astonishing $61 Million Spent on Tuck v. Thurmond Race | Diane Ravitch’s blog

    There has never been an election for State Superintendent of Public Instruction like the one recently concluded in California between Marshall Tuck and Tony Thurmond. Tom Ultican says that $61 Million was spent. It might eventually be even more.

  • Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: Why I Wouldn’t Use 3D (NGSS) Performance Expectations for Standards-Based Grading (Part 3 of Series)

    In my last post, I mentioned that I would not use the NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) as scoring categories for standards-based grading (SBG). The main concern I expressed was about the inconsistencies and confusion that generated in one distric…

  • Alien Earths Online – www.alienearths.org

  • Assessing Learning in Maker Education | Edutopia

  • The Most Important Skills for the 4th Industrial Revolution? Try Ethics and Philosophy. | EdSurge News

  • UKEdMag: Every School needs a School Library by @ElizabetHutch – UKEdChat

  • Math Is Visual | Math Is Visual

    tags:mathematics math maths visuals visualization online edtech

  • Celebrating positives improves classroom behaviour and mental health – UKEdChat

  • Mecabricks.com

    tags:legos lego online edtech

  • This is Your Child’s Brain on Video Games | Psychology Today

  • Video: “Climate Change Explained In 5 Minutes Featuring Al Gore” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

    geralt / Pixabay I’m adding this new BuzzFeed video to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change:

  • How to Build a Trauma Sensitive Classroom

    In this way, teachers are uniquely positioned to ameliorate some of the effects of early trauma. “The adults in the school environment may be the most stable and mentally well people [some children] have contact with,” said Jennings.

  • 50 New Blog Post Ideas For Educators – The Edublogger

    Do you have a professional educator blog? Many teachers start blogs with good intentions but keeping them active long term can be a struggle.

  • Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Our New Weather Satellite is In Position

    GOES-17, the new National Weather Service weather satellite, is now in position over the eastern Pacific. And you should expect to see substantially improved weather imagery in the future….on this blog and everywhere else.

  • 10 Ways Educators Can Take Action in Pursuit of Equity | Cult of Pedagogy

    With every passing year, it seems that our collective awareness of educational inequity is growing.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great resources from this past week:

• Slime Science Fair Project Ideas: Questions for slime based learning
• Teaching Responsibility or Compliance? – The Principal of Change

• Alcohol and Drug Abuse in College – Substance Addiction Statistics

• Students’ smoking- the earlier you quit smoking, the better

• “Unpaywall” Is New Tool For Accessing Research Papers For Free | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…As anyone who has tried to pursue even a little bit of academic research can attest, publishers charge an arm-and-a-leg to access studies if you are not part of an institution that subscribes to their journals. And the authors of those studies don’t…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Federal Land vs. State LandAs I write this What is Federal Land? is the #49 trending video on YouTube. It’s nice to see an educational video trending that high on YouTube. The video was produced by CGP Grey who has produced some other fantastic educational videos over the yea…

• History Nerdfest 2018: Using Structured Academic Controversy to teach 21st century skills | History TechIt ranks right up there with the Holiday season, KC Chiefs football, and the first weekend of the college basketball tournament. It’s National Council for the Social Studies conference week. I’m lucky enough to get front row seats and am trying to l…

• History Nerdfest 2018: Encouraging Historical Thinking Through Picture Books | History TechIt ranks right up there with the Holiday season, KC Chiefs football, and the first weekend of the college basketball tournament. It’s National Council for the Social Studies conference week. I’m lucky enough to get front row seats and am trying to l…

• A Little-Known Secret To Effective Teaching – Smart Classroom ManagementThere is a secret to effective teaching very few teachers are aware of. It’s so secret, in fact, that I’ve never heard anyone speak of it.

• Classroom Games and Tech: A Simple, Powerful Reflection Activity with Google DrawingsFor some recent professional development I have been focusing on thinking routines from The Visible Thinking website. One particularly powerful reflection routine caught my attention, so I created a related template for it in Google Drawings.

• History Nerdfest 2018: Unpacking color consciousness | History TechIt ranks right up there with the Holiday season, KC Chiefs football, and the first weekend of the college basketball tournament. It’s National Council for the Social Studies conference week. I’m lucky enough to get front row seats and am trying to l…

• Screenplay – Edit video as naturally as textScreenplay gives you an auto-generated transcription of all the speech in your whole video file. All you have to do next is use the familiar text editor interface to trim, cut, and rearrange text to create your brand new video!

• 8 Food Myths You Need To Stop Believing | MyFitnessPalYou can find healthy eating advice on every corner. That doesn’t mean it’s good advice, though. Nutrition research can be confusing, and it’s always changing.

• Hydrophones open a world of underwater sound to people at home | Watching Our Water WaysListening to the sound of whales in Puget Sound from your computer at home is becoming easier than ever, thanks to a new hydrophone on Whidbey Island and its connection to a more sophisticated computer network.

• History Nerdfest 2018: Fostering Civil Dialogue | History TechIt ranks right up there with the Holiday season, KC Chiefs football, and the first weekend of the college basketball tournament. It’s National Council for the Social Studies conference week. I’m lucky enough to get front row seats and am trying to l…

• History Nerdfest 2018: Civic Engagement in actual practice – handouts, resources, and rubrics | History TechIt ranks right up there with the Holiday season, KC Chiefs football, and the first weekend of the college basketball tournament. It’s National Council for the Social Studies conference week. I’m lucky enough to get front row seats and am trying to l…

• Yong Zhao’s Must-Watch Lecture on “Side Effects in Education” | Diane Ravitch’s blogThis is a video of Yong Zhao’s brilliant lecture on education reform at Wellesley College on Bovember 1. He called it “What Works May Hurt. Side Effects in Education.” He recently published a book explains this paradox. I strongly recommend this boo…

• No, Robert Pondiscio, School Choice is Not a “Moral Agenda” | Diane Ravitch’s blogYesterday, I participated in a panel discussion at the Washington Post about national issues in education with Robert Pondiscio of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Dean Bridget Terry Long of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

• Blended Learning: 8 Respectful Routines |I field a lot of questions about classroom management when I work with teachers transitioning to blended learning. Teachers worry about what will happen when they shift from whole group lessons to blended learning models that encourage student agenc…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Teaching the Constitution With Political Cartoons – Webinar RecordingDocsTeach is one of my favorite tools for building history lessons centered around primary source documents, pictures, maps, and drawings. DocsTeach contains an integrated search tool for finding artifacts from the U.S. National Archives. You can us…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Turn Text to Speech With the Voicepods Chrome ExtensionA couple of months ago I discovered a new text to speech tool called Voicepods. When I first tried it and wrote about it Voicepods would only create voice recordings based on text that you wrote.

• 8 Good Sketchnoting Apps for Teachers | Educational Technology and Mobile LearningWe are revisiting the topic of sketchnoting with an updated list of some of the best iPad apps you can use to create visually attractive sketchnotes.

• How to Multitask Like a Pro on Chromebooks: 8 Tips and TricksGoogle wants to replace your computer with an operating system that, on the surface, might seem like just a web browser. But when you want to get work done, you need those desktop-grade multitasking tools, and easily switch between multiple apps and…

• Control Alt Achieve: 8 Ways to Supercharge Google Docs with DrawingsOn the 8th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 8 Docs Drawings. Note: This post is part of my “12 Days of Tech-Mas” series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: “12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017…

• Development Progress #1Introduction Why, hello! My name is Felpix, and thanks for checking out my first post in my development progress for my own game, titled CrashBound. If you haven’t seen the first post, check it out at the hyperlink.

• Steve Isaacs (stevei2071) on Pinterestclasscraft story : Game in Progress – Reflection 1!Reflection #1 by Stephanie 11/30/2018 Quick Summary: The game I am creating in Minecraft is called Parcore. It is a game where you (the player), goes through a test (or a series of levels) to see if you’re a qualified parkourist.

• History Nerdfest 2018: Helping Teachers Embrace Controversial Issues | History TechI love the National Council for the Social Studies national conference. Who doesn’t? Seriously. Thousands of social studies nerds all in one place? Talking about best practice, resources, tech tools, sharing ideas, getting smarter? What’s not to lik…

• Trump Administration Warning On Climate Change | Diane Ravitch’s blogThe Trump administration released an ominous report on climate change in the middle of the Thanksgiving weekend, on a Friday at 2 pm. It hoped to bury the consensus of 17 federal agencies. But the facts won’t stay buried, no matter how much politici…

• History Nerdfest 2018: Social Studies Inquiry Made Real. Teachers as Designers | History TechI love this stuff! The Inquiry Design Model is a great way to integrate the NCSS Inquiry Arc into actual practice. This is something that we in Kansas have been struggling with since 2013. We created new state standards that focuses on finding a bal…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A New Gradebook for Google Classroom!One of the long-running complaints about Google Classroom that I and many others have had is about the nearly featureless gradebook. It appears that Google has heard those complaints and is taking some steps to improve the Google Classroom gradebook.

• A Professional Development Alternative | My Island ViewI recently attended the annual conference held by , the New York State ISTE affiliate organization. It is a favorite conference of mine, since I served as a board member of that organization for about six years. It is also both comprehensive and pro…

• History Nerdfest 2018: Spatial Analogies and Learning Geography | History TechDr. Phil Gersmehl is rocking the room with brain science and maps. His basic point: He’s using brain research to show how our brains unconsciously encode maps differently. What we remember depends on how we encode it. He highlighted some ways that t…

• Room Escape Maker – Create Escape The Room Games For FreeROOM ESCAPE MAKER is a free online application to create Escape The Room games. Build challenging casual point and click games with puzzles, hidden objects, safes with combination locks, and much more. YOU are game designer. And for free 🙂

• Great Books for Dystopian Book Clubs – Pernille RippOne choice can transform you. Beatrice Prior’s society is divided into five factions—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).

• Control Alt Achieve: Google Tools for English Language LearnersGoogle Docs translate add-on Instead of translating an entire document, sometimes you may just need to translate a phrase or sentence. For those occasions you can use the Google Translate add-on for Docs.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google is Removing Annotations from YouTube VideosEighteen months ago Google removed the annotations editor from YouTube. Today, I logged into the YouTube editor and saw an announcement that Google is going to remove all existing annotations from YouTube videos on January 15th.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Sites in VR – The VR App for Those Without VR HeadsetsSites in VR is a free Android and iOS app that provides a 1700 virtual reality views of significant landmarks around the world. The app is a good one for those who would like to experience a bit of virtual reality without having to use a virtual rea…

• My Own Game: The Minecraft Olympics Name (s): John, Zayan, Ben, Charlie Game Title: Minecraft Olympics Genre: Action/Adventure Tool / platform you think you will use to create the game: Minecraft Storyline: In the city of Gome the Olympics have been going on for a hundred years with c…

• Homework did not prepare my daughter for college.“I give homework to my students to prepare them for college” is a common statement made by teachers that I work with and throughout the country.  According to Bill Gates’ Blog, (cnbc.

• Real teaching means real learning: Area and perimeter of a triangleAsk, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”. After some discussion pose, if not already asked, the following questions:

• 5 Resources to Find Tons of Free Fun Unplugged Coding Activities! – Teacher Reboot CampPart of the series, Hour of Code Ideas! In a previous post I described why all students should participate in the upcoming Hour of Code event, which takes place December 3rd to 9th.

• [Mailbag] What Do You Do with the Ideas You Used to Call “Mistakes” – dy/danGuillaume Paré, in the very interesting comments of my last post where I urged us to reconsider mistakes: I do agree with what is written, but I am still wondering what I’m supposed to do with that information and the student’s copy.

• Guest Blogger: Mary Gross – Anger and Hope | CUNY Games NetworkToday we wrap up the four-part series from guest blogger Mary Gross. In this final entry, Mary describes a game in which students participate in strategic gambles that result in reallocation of resources represented by chips.

• How to build an integrated STEM lesson using Minecraft – Monash EducationAnd it all starts with searching for action verbs, write Monash’s Gillian Kidman, Roland Gesthusizen and Hazel Tan. Within the Australian curriculum, there are a number of specific cognitive skills that need to be developed in science, technology an…

• Sketchnoting How-to Sylvia DuckworthThe perfect combination of pedagogy and practice, Sylvia’s new book begins with an overview of why doodling is not just okay, it’s beneficial to the learning process.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Technology Use Is A Right, Not A PrivilegeSome traditional educators may still view student access to technology as a privilege, but it is not. Today, technology is necessary for learning to be accessible, real, and relevant in the modern world.

• A Big Reward for Writing this Blog | Diane Ravitch’s blogSeveral weeks ago, I told the story of Arnold and Carol Hillman, who retired as educators in Pennsylvania and moved to South Carolina.

• Paymon Rouhanifard: I Was Wrong About Standardized Testing and Accountability | Diane Ravitch’s blogPayman Rouhanifard was in charge of Joel Klein’s “Office of Portfolio Management” in New York City. He was appointed as superintendent of schools in Camden, New Jersey, by Chris Christie.

• ditchthattextbook.comSketchnoting in the Classroom: A Beginner’s Guide – Class Tech TipsAre you ready to try something new? Sketchnoting isn’t a new concept, but it’s gaining traction throughout education communities. Educators and students are exploring ways to capture their learning. It’s been very exciting to see the excitement arou…

• Get Started with Augmented + Virtual Reality | ARVRinEDU | Jaime Donally | Professional DevelopmentFree Technology for Teachers: Nearly 900 Free Art History Books – And an Art LessonAround this time five years ago I discovered that the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts free online art history texts. A recent Tweet from Open Culture reminded me of that collection. Today, I revisited that collection and discovered that it has expa…

• Collection: Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection – Cornell University Library Digital Collections Search ResultsStart Over Collection Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection Cornell University Library Digital Collections Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection About the collection Skip filters Cornell University Library Web Accessibility Assistance Library Resources:…

• Badass Teachers Association: BATs Statement on US Attack on Asylum SeekersThe directors of the Badass Teachers Association condemn U.S. border agent’s unjustified use of tear gas on asylum seekers this weekend in Tijuana, Mexico.

• 50 New Blog Post Ideas For Students – The EdubloggerDo your students have blogs? Or perhaps they contribute to a class blog? Enthusiasm is typically high when blogs are first set up but students may need some assistance to keep the momentum going.

• Are Rubrics Counterproductive and Limiting? | All Things AssessmentA few months ago, a young teacher, Maggie, asked me what I thought of the use of rubrics. I thought it a curious question, so I asked her why she was asking.

• A Side Quest about Side Quests! – Classroom PowerupsPlease leave me a comment so that I know you found this side quest! If you aren’t actually at my FETC Session this is going to be a side quest participants will be able to go on as I am playing a dice game with the group.

• 8 Wonderful Websites for Easy Coding Activities for Any Age or Level! – Teacher Reboot CampFirst in the series, Hour of Code Ideas! Throughout my 20 plus years of teaching I’ve integrated technology in the various subjects I’ve taught because the world needs all our learners to gain the digital skills needed to thrive, connect, and contri…

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