Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Great posts from this past week:

• Blocks and Brickers

• Seven Basic Emotions – Reading Facial Expression – Humintell

• A new vision of artificial intelligence for the people | MIT Technology Review

  This story is the fourth and final part of MIT Technology Review’s series on AI colonialism, the idea that artificial intelligence is creating a new colonial world order. It was supported by the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program and t…

• Infographic Of The Week: “The Science of Nuclear Weapons, Visualized” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  This infographic comes from Visual Capitalist, and you can see a bigger version at its site. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nuclear Weapons.

• The Nerdy Teacher: Coloring and #MentalHealth #EdChat #SelfCare

  As we wind down the school year, the stress levels for students tend to shoot up through the roof. One of the things that I have found to be wonderfully helpful in mitigating that stress is something so simple and something that all kids love to do,…

• The @WSJ’s #WomenIn Sustainable Finance Virtual Event + FREE Registration Code #edtech #finedchat #innovation | techieMusings

  I am excited to be attending a number of Wall Street Journal events this spring and summer, and I wanted to share another opportunity with you today. You’ve seen me share information about The Future Of Everything Festival already.

• 9 New Zoom Features (and one that’s Kind of Creepy) Announced April 19, 2022

  Zoom has announced a slew of new features that educators have been longing to have. This blog will go over the highlights of gesture recognition, viewing all of the breakout rooms from the main room. (Yes!) And even a way to implement Chat etiquette…

• Blood Sugar Balance Lesson

• Coding in Minecraft – Coding in Minecraft

• Texas Co-Taught Lessons – YouTube

• Live Lessons with Minecraft EDU – NCCE

• Version 2.0 Gaming and Esports Research – Varsity Esports Foundation – Google Slides

• 8 Principles for Supporting Students with ADHD | Cult of Pedagogy

  This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org? The feelin…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create an Online Yearbook

  Earlier this week a reader sent me an email asking for suggestions for free tools that she can use to create an online yearbook. I had two suggestions for her. The first was to use Book Creator.

• Five Parameters To Build Effective Personalized Learning Experiences – e-Learning Infographics

  It’s no secret that impactful learning programs can drive significant results for successful business outcomes. However, several organizations are struggling to leverage personalized training programs to engage the millennial workforce.

• Guiding Middle and High School Students to Develop a Clear Understanding of Their Cell Phone Use | Edutopia

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Best Adobe Spark Alternative

  In the last two weeks I’ve had a handful of people email me to ask for alternatives to Adobe Spark for creating videos. I’m taking that as a sign that Adobe didn’t go a great job communicating that they simply rebranded Adobe Spark as Adobe Creative…

• Attention Required! | Cloudflare

• The Essay: How To Help Students Get Better at Writing Essays – codexterous

  A couple of days ago I came across this incredibly interesting observation by Peter Stockwell, which immediately got me thinking about lots of things related to essay writing: If there is a canon of literary texts that move in and out of preference …

• Esports players retire extremely young. It’s not why you think. – The Washington Post

  There are many factors pushing esports athletes into early retirement. Slower reflexes aren’t among them.

• World of Warcraft perfectly predicted our coronavirus panic | WIRED UK

  An accidental pandemic in the online game offers a valuable insight into the way people are behaving during the coronavirus crisis

• 10 Simple Ways to Engage Quiet Students – Reading and Writing Haven

  You’ve just asked one of the most thought-provoking questions of your teaching career, and you look out upon a sea of faces with anticipation. Fully expecting students to exude wonder and curiosity, you disappointingly realize…they’re tuned out.

• Global Pandemics – History Adventures

  Presenting Chapter 1: “To Do No Harm,” the story of Nikos of Athens, a physician during the Plague of Athens, 429 BCE, who struggles to treat the multitude who fall ill during this world-upending ordeal, causing him to question everything he holds d…

• 3 Strategies That Position Students to Take Responsibility for Their Progress and Behavior – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  The final stretch of the school year between spring break and the last day of class presents unique challenges. The sunshine and spring weather impacts the students’ ability to focus. Teachers and students are exhausted and ready for a break.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Fun Things for Students to Map

  Last week I published a video about how to record a Google Earth tour in your web browser. That’s just one of many tools that students can use to create multimedia maps. A few other options include using Scribble Maps, Padlet maps, and Google’s My M…

• A Small Question to Help Further Build Positive Relationships – Pernille Ripp

  I was speaking to my husband who is a first-year teacher and the topic of navigating student discipline came up, as it often does. He teaches middle school like me, and if there is one thing I know about middle-schooler it is how often they do not t…

• Earth Day Is On April 22nd – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Earth Day is on April 22nd. You might be interested in The Best Earth Day Sites.

• Does my child have Inattentive ADHD | Inattentive ADHD Coalition

• Free Technology for Teachers: Expeditions Pro – Guide Students on Virtual Reality Tours

  Last year many of us were disappointed when Google announced the closure of their Expeditions program. Shortly after that announcement a new company popped-up to offer an alternative to Google Expeditions. That alternative is called Expeditions Pro.

• The Power of Meaningful Work | Mike Kaechele

• A Principal’s Reflections: The Ever-Evolving Leadership Lens

  Good leadership is, quite frankly, good leadership. The tenants have remained the same for centuries. What’s changed is the environment in which one leads, and this impacts the lens that is, or should be, used to drive change.

• MAY THE 4TH RUN! – Virtual Pace Series

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are last week’s selection of great blog posts:

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: My Views on Climate Change/Global Warming and A Cool/Showery Forecast for the Next Week

  Several readers of this blog asked that I provide a summary of my views on global warming. To respond to these requests, I dedicated most of my Friday podcast to this issue–so please check it out (you can access the podcast below or through your fa…

• The First Step With An Out-Of-Control Class – Smart Classroom Management

  It’s not to teach your classroom management plan. With an out-of-control class, bringing up rules right away will fall on deaf ears. No, the first step after losing control or taking over an unruly class is to remove excitability.

• What Is Behind the Attack on Critical Race Theory?? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Very few of its critics can define CRT. Most seem to think it means teaching about racism today. They prefer to believe that racism ended with slavery. They are wrong. Numerous states have passed laws banning the teaching of critical race theory, ev…

• Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: What Is “Student-Centered” Instruction?

  To begin, if there is one right answer to a task, it’s not student-centered. It’s students figuring out the answer the teacher wants.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Good Source of U.S. History Lesson Starters

  When I taught U.S. History one of my go-to methods for starting classroom conversations about a new topic or unit was to give my students an interesting image or a short primary source document to review and ask questions about.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Good Tools for Creating Infographics

  Yesterday morning I got an email from a reader who was looking for some suggestions for tools that her eighth grade students could use to create infographics.

• Game Pathways – Family Video Game Database

• Epic Games and LEGO Are Working Together To Create a Child-Safe Metaverse Space – IGN

• PlayVS strong-arms teachers into using esports platform, educators allege – The Washington Post

• U of T report examines legal issues of gamified apps, implications of ‘coauthored choices’ – The Lawyer’s Daily

• How the Metaverse and Gaming can transform education | ASU+GSV 2022 – YouTube

• Masters of @ mmhmmapp: #edtech to maximize our use of face-to-face time for connection & collaboration #flipclass | techieMusings

  If you’ve seen me present virtually, you’ve seen me use mmhmm to do an over-the-shoulder slides look & easily toggle between screen share & my camera. What you don’t see there is the power of mmhmm to record & share to empower students with resource…

• The Nerdy Teacher: Coolest Projects from Raspberry Pi #MakerEd

  If you are looking for a fun way to bring a design challenge to your students, please take a moment to check out Coolest Projects from Raspberry Pi. Coolest Projects provides all of the information a student and a teacher needs to be successful.

• Schools Matter: Over 1,000 Books Banned During the Past Nine Months

  Book bans in public schools have recurred throughout American history, and have long been an issue of concern to PEN America, as a literary and free expression advocacy organization. Over the past nine months, the scope of such censorship has expand…

• Datafied Childhoods the book – NetFamilyNews.org

  A grabbier headline might be “Screens are watching us back,” but that would be like so many scary news headlines parents are subjected to. More importantly, it’s only a small part of all that this important new book – Datafied Childhoods, by Profs.

• Control Alt Achieve: You can do that with Docs, Slides, and Sheets?!

  I recently had the privilege to present a session for Google’s series of “Did You Know?” webinars. These are a collection of 8 sessions covering a wide range of Google tools for schools.

• 6th Grade Minecraft Lesson: Box and whisker, and Histogram to Agriculture and Price – Learning at 356mbps

  Materials: Students were given a worksheet to write answers and show their work. Students also required a laptop with which to work on. Time: Students had 40 minutes to complete the task. Only a hand full of the students were able to finish in the t…

• How esports have become a pathway to college scholarships

• It Takes Two Creator Shared How Filmmaking Helped the Game Mechanics

  Josef Fares explained why such mechanics as the game’s Street Fighter section are not used more.

• Building Up or Breaking Down: How Assessment Impacts a Culture of Learning | All Things Assessment

  Have you ever started a new book and just . . . lost interest? Have you ever started a book and found yourself so enthralled that you could hardly put it down? Each school year, educators have the opportunity to write a new story—and the beginning o…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Free Design Skills Course for Students

  As you probably know, I am a huge fan of Canva. I use it on a daily basis to create YouTube thumbnails, presentations, and teaching materials like my new Around the World With Google Earth activity.

• First All-Black Everest Team Heads to Himalaya | The Adventure Blog

  Now that April has arrived, the mountaineering world is once again turning its attention to the Himalaya. In the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, climbers are now arriving in droves and are preparing for the epic challenges that now lie ahead.

• how-minecraft-started-enhanced-student-learning-explained LinkedIn

• 3 trends shaping robotics demand in 2022

• Game Pathways – Family Video Game Database

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Image Editing Features Built Into Google Slides

  Regular readers of my blog probably know that I’m a big fan of using tools like Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud Express, and Pixlr to edit and enhance pictures. But sometimes those tools feel like they have almost too many options.

• A Principal’s Reflections: Shifting Our Practice

  In my previous post, I dove into the concept of shifting our focus from “what” to “who” in order to set the stage for personalization.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Great blog posts from this past week:

• The Best Teaching & Learning Resources About The Russia/Ukraine War | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  We can only hope that Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. Lesson of the Day: ‘Can the West Stop Russia From Invading Ukraine?’ is from The NY Times Learning Network.

• NOAA Planet Stewards Education Project: NOAA’s National Ocean Service

  The funding application will ask you to explain how the issue relates to your community and to connect your local issue within a broader (regional, global) context.

• Choose Your READING Path Adventure – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  “Why do we have to read so much in here?” I have fielded this question from students several times over the years. By the time my students reached high school, many were disillusioned with reading. They found it tedious, challenging, or boring.

• Licensing | Minecraft Education Edition

  Minecraft: Education Edition offers pre-built lesson plans, build challenges, immersive worlds, educational features, tutorials, classroom settings, and more.

• Try Minecraft: Education Edition for free – MEE

  Minecraft: Education Edition is available to anyone to try for free! There are two ways to try Minecraft: Education Edition for free, through the free trial or through the demo lesson. The free trial requires you to have an account, either an Office…

• The Nerdy Teacher: I’m Neurodivergent. Would I be successful in your class? #EdChat

  Over the past few years, there has been more talk about Social Emotional Learning. As part of that conversation, many educators are hearing new terms. One of those terms is neurodiversity.

• graphic-novels-about-greek-gods-that-dont-talk-down-to-kids

  Graphic novelist George O’Connor is a big hit on the grade school circuit. On a visit to Brent Elementary School in Washington, D.C. in early March, he talked about his creative process with about 70 fourth graders.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Create Your Own USGS Maps

  Earlier this year I highlighted the galleries of free to use and re-use media that the USGS hosts. Earlier this week I was back on the USGS site looking in those galleries when I noticed something new to me. That something is the USGS National Map V…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Few Good Resources for Learning How Blockchain Works

  For the last year or so whenever I watch a sporting event on television there are advertisements for cryptocurrency exchanges. It has even pervaded niche sports like professional cycling (here’s one story about a particularly dodgy instance in cycli…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Annotate PDFs With Lumin PDF – Free for Teachers

  I just received an email from Lumin PDF announcing that all of the premium features are now available to teachers and their students for free! The premium features include merging and splitting PDFs, highlighting (in addition to the normal annotatin…

• An example EduProtocols unit that supports UDL, SEL – Ditch That Textbook

  This post is written by Kim Voge, an educator, instructional coach, adjunct professor, and ed tech consultant from California. Kim is the co-author of Deploying EduProtocols: 20+ Ways to Use EduProtocols to Transform Your School or District. Find he…

• steven-sawchuk-states-enacting-bills-to-limit-or-eliminate-teaching-about-lgbt/ | Diane Ravitch’s blog

• Earthworms like to eat some plastics, but side effects of their digestion are unclear

• Join NCCE this April for Minecraft Active Citizen Live Lessons – NCCE’s Tech Savvy Teacher Blog

  Every day, millions of young people in every country and territory worldwide use Minecraft as a platform to connect, solve problems together and explore their creativity in all sorts of ways.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Math and Science of Baseball

  Tomorrow is the opening day of the 2022 Major League Baseball season.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Helpful WriteReader Features for Teachers and Students

  WriteReader is a great platform for online creative writing projects. It has many features that make it great for elementary school use. Some of those features include how students access it, the library of artwork, and audio support for students.

• Your Earth Month SEL Calendar for April

  Spring is upon us, and April is our month to celebrate the Earth! Earth Day is April 22, however we think the planet is so important that we’re celebrating all month long! As nature begins budding around us, it is the perfect time for you and your s…

• Debunking the Myth That Teachers Stop Improving After Three-Five Years | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  The following post was written by Jill Barshay and reposted by Larry Cuban on his blog. It is a response to the claim by various economists that teachers don’t improve after three to five years.

• Peter Greene: “Moms for Liberty” Are Shocked by Literal Interpretation of “Don’t Say Gay” Bill | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Peter Greene discovered an email blast from the radical rightwing group that calls itself “Moms for Liberty.

• A Reader Sends a Comment to the US DOE about Regulating Charter Schools Program | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  A writer who identifies here as quickwrit sent a comment to the U.S. Department of Education commending it for the proposed regulation of the federal Charter Schools Program, which dispenses $440 million a year to start new charter schools or expand…

• LatiNext Poetry Project – Google Slides

• Home : Hypothesis

• CAPT_RO | Digital Art

  I’m a Digital Artist and lifelong Star Trek Fan who usually ends up drawing huge hunky dudes—from more realistic styles, to cartoon styles!

• A Principal’s Reflections: Shifting Our Focus

  Humans, by nature, are heavily influenced by experience. As such, we often do things a certain way because that is either all we know or what we are comfortable doing. Think about this for a second when it comes to behavior in education.

• Washington Post Editorial Opposes New Regulations to Ban For-Profit Charters and Require Charters to Show Their Impact | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  The federal Charter Schools Program was launched in 1994 with a few million dollars, when the Clinton administration decided to offer funding for start-ups. At the time, there were few charter schools.

• Uncovering Your Blind Spots: An Exercise for Teachers | Cult of Pedagogy

  This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org?

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

More great blog posts from this past week:

• This Is What a Teacher Does | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  A friend sent this video, which appears on TikTok. If you know the name of this teacher, please let me know so I can thank her.

• Sacramento: Teachers Strike for Dignity and Respect | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Sacramento City Unified School District teachers, school staff and supporters take part in a rally at Rosemont High School on March 28 as they have been gone on strike due to the staffing crisis in the district . All SCUSD schools shut down and will…

• SEL Opportunities for Students Within the Curriculum by @FroehlichM – Teacher Tech

  A challenge that I regularly hear teachers discuss is how they can possibly fit social-emotional learning (SEL) into their day.

• Free Technology for Teachers: My Three Favorite Tools for Creating QR Codes

  There are lots of practical and clever uses for QR codes in schools. Over the years I’ve used them to make sign-in/sign-out sheets easily accessible, to distribute contact information to parents, and to create digital scavenger hunts.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Random Name Pickers to Use in Your Classroom

  From creating groups to choosing a line leader to establishing the order of presenters there are plenty of times that a random name picker can be helpful in your classroom. I’ve tried dozens of them over the years.

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Where Would a Toxic Release over Ukraine End Up? The Pacific Northwest Would Be In the Downstream Plume

  Several blog readers have asked me about the impacts of a toxic release over Ukraine. Where would it go? Could the Northwest be in the line of fire?

• I’m Dyslexic and it isn’t a Superpower! – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  I’m dyslexic. I was diagnosed 30 or more years ago. So I say with all respect, stop calling Dyslexia a superpower. It belittles & glamourises a condition that is, to many, crippling and leads to terrible anxiety and self-esteem issues. When I was yo…

• Google Unveils Fact-Checking Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Today, Google unveiled several new fact-checking tools. You can read about all of them here.

• 10 Virtual Reality Field Trips for Earth Day – Class Tech Tips

  If you want to take students on a tour of our planet on April 22nd (or any day), try out these virtual reality field trips for Earth Day. Poetry isn’t just for spring, but with April as poetry month, you might find it’s the perfect time to explore a…

• Fun formative assessment: 12 easy, no-tech ideas you can use tomorrow – Ditch That Textbook

  Formative assessment means providing students with opportunities to show you what they are learning while you are teaching it. These assessments inform your instruction and help you make those little tweaks to your lessons that meet the needs of you…

• Is it found in Puget Sound? | Puget Sound Institute

  The Puget Sound and Salish Sea watersheds contain many incredible geographic features, but it’s not always easy to tell which ones are truly part of the region. Does Puget Sound really include three active volcanoes? (Yes! See above.

• Gamification in Education: The 5 Key Learning Principles Built Into Good Games | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

  Gamification is a new trend that is gaining in popularity particularly in the education sector. Some consider it as a useful way to arouse students motivation and increase their on-task engagement.

• 3 Great Ways to Practice Collaboration in the Classroom –

  Collaboration in the classroom is an essential part of learning. I find it is a hard thing to figure out how to teach. Here are some things I’m doing in my classroom that promote collaboration. I recently have introduced a puzzle table to my classro…

• 3 Lessons Learned from Reopening An Elementary School in the Middle of a Global Pandemic – Creating Life Long Learners

  I’ve been an elementary school principal for seven years now. In the last three years we’ve endured the first Los Angeles teacher strike in thirty years and the first global pandemic in the last hundred years. Here’s my best advice on reopening afte…

• Jan Resseger: Feds Propose New Rules to Bar Profiteers | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Jan Resseger writes here about the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed new regulations for the federal Charter Schools Program.

• Ten Years of Zombies, Run! – Zombies, Run!

  I’ll be honest – I knew we had an incredible idea in Zombies, Run!, a running game and audio adventure that would make exercise more exciting – but I never imagined it would last for ten years.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Huge Collection of Resources for Fun Phys Ed Activities

  OPEN Phys Ed is an organization that hosts tons of great resources for physical education teachers. Additionally, OPEN organizes initiatives to encourage students to participate in physical education activities. One of those initiatives is National …

• Classroom Management: Creating a Positive and Productive Learning Community – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  “Are we going to talk about classroom management?” Several of my graduate students asked this question last week as we prepared to enter the final month of our methods course.

• Free Technology for Teachers: More Easy Ways to Save Paper & Ink When Printing

  Last week I published a blog post titled Stop Printing the Internet in which I shared some ways to limit the amount of ink and paper you use when printing and also encourage others to do the same.

• Free Technology for Teachers: ICYMI – How to Create & Sell Your Own Digital Products

  Last week I hosted a live webinar titled How to Create & Sell Your Own Digital Products. Since then a bunch of people have reached out to me to say that they wanted to attend, but couldn’t because of the timing. Therefore, I’ve now made the recordin…

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Beauty of Atmospheric Water Vapor

  Meteorologists have no need to purchase artwork. The reason is that imagery from satellites, radars, and numerical models is often stunning.

• Chronicling America « Library of Congress

  Search America’s historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Hum…

• A Principal’s Reflections: Change Begins with You

  When we do things a certain way, we often become comfortable, especially if we are satisfied with the result. While this might seem perfectly fine on the surface, the truth is that progress can become stagnant.

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