Here are more amazing blog posts from last week:
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Longer growing seasons have a limited effect on combating climate change
Climate warming is leading to early springs and delayed autumns in colder environments, allowing plants to grow for a longer period of time during each growing season. Plants are absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of this longer growing…
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The science of melting chocolate | Feature | RSC Education
Share this infographic with your students, download the poster for your classroom and get students developing their knowledge of changes of state and mixtures Download this This infographic is designed to be displayed as a poster in the classroom, a…
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Change Your Mouse Pointer Size and Color
Earlier this week I looked at one of my students’ computers and noticed that he had made his mouse pointer red and about three times its normal size. When I asked him why he changed it his answer was, “it’s easier to see.” I suppose that I should ha…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Enable Audio and Video Captions on Any Page in Chrome
This week Google rolled-out the latest update to Chrome. In the latest version there is now support for automatic captioning of audio and video on any web page that you visit in the Chrome web browser. The captions will work whether or not the audio…
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cdc-says-schools-can-now-space-students-3-feet-apart-rather-than-6
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for schools. On Friday, the agency announced it “now recommends that, with universal masking, students should maintain a distance of at least 3 feet in classroom settings.”
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Mission Punch Cards (Or, How Just About Every One of My Students is Independently Motivated)
Yep, you read that right. Almost all of my students are independently motivated. They line up, begging to retake skills to demonstrate mastery. Even when the grading period is long closed and I can’t change their grade.
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Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to interviews with educators who are on the forefront of innovative pedagogy or making effective changes to old practices.
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3 Reasons You Should Bring Games Into Your Classroom – Metawriting
Anyone who knows me, in real life or online, knows that this semester I built my general education writing class (Writing II at my institution) around games.
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Game On? Brain On! — Designed To Learn
Ready to level up learning? With educators being continually pushed toward canned curriculums and standardized testing, Lindsay Portnoy reminds teachers, parents, and all those invested in education that there’s a better way to learn: through play.
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The Emergence of Eugenics | Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code
Eugenics attempts to use social sanction or state policy to improve the “hereditary character” of a specific population by preventing those deemed “inferior” from reproducing and encouraging those deemed “superior” to bear children.
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How to Quickly Turn a Lecture into a Game – Best Class Ever
Love teaching? Love games? Ever wanted to bring the magic of learning into the magic circle of a game, or bring the magic of a game into the classroom? Me too. That’s why I create educational board games.
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G4C & Minecraft Education Edition Game Jam Tickets, Sat, Mar 20, 2021 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
CALLING ALL MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL GAMES ENTHUSIASTS! Do you like to play video games? Have you ever wanted to make one? If you answered yes, then this event is for YOU!
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Within 70-million-year-old rock deposits located in southern China’s Jiangxi Province, researchers unearthed a preserved fossil of an oviraptorosaur crouched over a nest of 24 eggs, reports Alaa Elassar for CNN.
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Playing with Plexi: the Air Mail Game – Classroom Powerups
This week my school had Plexiglass Barriers installed. The district has decided that this will facilitate safe full 5 day in person meetings.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Live Transcription in Zoom – Free for All Who Need It
About six weeks ago I published a video about how to enable automatic captions in Zoom. At the time, that feature was only available in the paid versions of Zoom. Since then Zoom has made two updates to their policy about access to live captioning.
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In it, she shared several powerful responses to questions she posed to them about this pandemic year and the future. Just last week, I borrowed several of her questions and did a similar activity with several of my classes.
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Remote Learning Isn’t the Only Problem With School – The Atlantic
The litany of tragedies and inconveniences visited upon Americans by COVID-19 is long, but one of the more pronounced sources of misery for parents has been pandemic schooling.
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Control Alt Achieve: 18 Free Image Sites and Tools for Schools
A picture is worth a thousand words, but it might also be worth a thousand dollars if your school gets hit with a copyright violation claim. This happens to schools every year as students or teachers inappropriately use an image that they do not hav…
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5 Google Jamboard features you (probably) don’t know – Ditch That Textbook
Jamboard is Google’s digital white board tool. Educators have flocked to it because it’s very visual, it’s easy to use, and it’s highly collaborative. Teachers are using it in so many ways …
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Humble Alternatives to Daylight Savings Time – Math with Bad Drawings
Math 1 Minute Published March 17, 2021
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Network for Public Education: The Scandal of For-Profit Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, authored this powerful exposé of for-profit charter schools.
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Free Technology for Teachers: A New Look for Presenting With Google Slides
On Monday Google announced a change to the presentation menu in Google Slides. Yesterday afternoon I got to try it for the first time. The new Google Slides presentation menu is a great improvement over the old one! Just like before you still need t…
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Free Technology for Teachers: Webinar Recording – Copyright & Creative Commons for K-12 Educators
Free Technology for Teachers
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Free Technology for Teachers: PayGrade.io Now Offers Google SSO
PayGrade is a classroom economy simulation that you can use all year. As I wrote last year, unlike some mock economy activities PayGrade can be used in just about any classroom setting. Recently, PayGrade added the option to use your school-issued G…
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Google Workspace Updates: Snooze Google Calendar desktop notifications
In the Cloud Connect Community, discuss the latest features with Googlers and other Google Workspace admins like you. Learn tips and tricks that will make your work and life easier. Be the first to know what’s happening with Google Workspace.
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Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Why the Strange Radar Echo over the Pacific Ocean?
I have gotten quite a few emails asking about a strange radar echo off the Washington Coast, including a few claiming a secret military operation and one suggesting an alien presence. Here is an example, showing the Langley Hill radar on March 15th …
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50 Physics Lesson Plans for Middle school Students — Innovative Teaching Ideas | Teaching Resources
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Project-Based Learning: Teaching Newton’s Laws with Broomball
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Free Technology for Teachers: Create Infinitely Recurring Zoom Meetings
Last week one of my colleagues asked me for help setting up some Zoom meetings. He needed to hold a series of meetings that were not going to be held at the same time each day. He could have set a series of individual meetings.
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Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Cloud Stop Motion
Cloud Stop Motion is an innovative site for creating and storing stop motion video projects. This is ideal for educators looking to integrate technology into the classroom and can be used for project based learning, digital storytelling, and more.
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Free Technology for Teachers: City Guesser 2.0 – Guess City Locations from Video Clips
For years City Guesser has been a popular geography game in which players have to guess the identity and location of a city based on Google Street View imagery. The new version of City Guesser replaces Google Street View imagery with street level vi…
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Understood’s resources for educators are backed by research, vetted by experts, and reviewed by classroom teachers. Understood’s resources for educators are backed by research, vetted by experts, and reviewed by classroom teachers.
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Control Alt Achieve: My NEOTech 2021 Sessions
Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting live and pre-recorded for NEOTech 2021, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions, or watch the recorded sessions.
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Why Zip Codes Matter | Diane Ravitch’s blog
From the earliest days of corporate reform, which is now generally recognized to have been a failed effort to “reform”schools by privatizing them and by making standardized testing the focal point of education, we heard again and again that a child’…
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Private Schools Are Indefensible – The Atlantic
Elite schools breed entitlement, entrench inequality—and then pretend to be engines of social change. This article was published online on March 11, 2021.
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The Key to Better Student Engagement Is Letting Them Show You How They Learn | EdSurge News
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Escape Rooms Made Easy: Tips to Save Your Sanity and Your Time – Not So Wimpy Teacher
For a long time, I was reluctant to try escape rooms. I loved the idea of using an escape room in my classroom, but I was overwhelmed by the process. Escape rooms have become a popular review strategy.
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I’ve already shared many resources explaining why the decision to require standardized testing this year makes very little sense (see Why Is The Biden Administration Decision To Have Standardized Tests This Year An Extremely Unwise One? Let Me Count…
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A Principal’s Reflections: 8 Elements of Effective Coaching
I absolutely love coaching educators in small groups. During these sessions, I get to see firsthand how they are implementing ideas and strategies into practice to grow.
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become-the-wolves-part-1-florida
Here are four basic facts about public education in Florida — and its political importance — that you probably don’t know.
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Students Have Tips for Teachers to Improve Hybrid Classrooms
Since August, my students have attended school in a hybrid A/B day model where one group attends school every Monday and Wednesday and the other group attends school every Tuesday and Thursday, and then they alternate Fridays.
