Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more amazing blog posts from last week:

• A Principal’s Reflections: Closing the Digital Divide with an Emphasis on Learning

  Bridging the digital divide is a monumental task. It begins with providing learners with access to devices and high-quality Internet. For all the challenges it has placed on school systems, the pandemic managed to close the gap in this area signific…

• Fortnite Creative Documentation | Fortnite

• CODAP – Common Online Data Analysis Platform

• Connected Science Learning September-October 2021 | NSTA

  Volume 3, Issue 5 Climate Change

• Using Digital Games to Teach Real-World Issues | Filament Games

  From helping players develop key 21st century skills, to promoting social and emotional learning (SEL) outcomes, and even helping engage learners who struggle with more traditional instructional methods, video games can serve as an incredibly powerf…

• Responding to Trauma and Responding to Evidence – Both Needed, Both Possible | All Things Assessment

  As regular readers of the STAC blog posts offered by my colleagues and me, you won’t be surprised to read the next sentence. Assessment is one of the most stress-inducing activities educators put students through.

• Plunging into a jungle of weather statistics to find the footprints of climate change | Puget Sound Institute

  This was the sentence that caught my eye while reading an email from Peter Gerard, director of communications for Climate Central, an organization that prides itself on helping news reporters tell an accurate story of climate change.

• Build a Bottle Centrifuge | STEM Activity

  In this fun activity, you will build a bottle centrifuge and explore the centripetal force by spinning liquids in a circle.

• International Microorganism Day

  Why should microbes have their own day? The IMD Mascot Art Competition was a great success, and the results are out now! Find more about the winner and runner-ups. Welcome to the IMD family, Rizzo!

• How to Make Apple Oxidation Experiment – STEM Little Explorers

  You probably heard the word “antioxidant” in some health-related articles or commercials. But do you know what antioxidants are and how they work? You will find out today with this simple apple science experiment! Article Contents 1. What is Oxidati…

• Minecraft EDU Bite-size Edition: Classroom Mode – YouTube

  Minecraft EDU has a separate application called Classroom Mode that you can use when hosting Minecraft worlds, esports events, and other activities with your students. In this video, I walk you through the ins and outs of Classroom Mode, from startu…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Good Explanation of the Slippery Slope Fallacy

  About a month ago I published a collection of resources for teaching students about logical fallacies and cognitive biases. Since then TED-Ed published another good video to add to that collection.

• beyond-description-story-relevant-aspects-of-setting

• Free Technology for Teachers: Influenza Archives – A History Lesson

  Monday’s featured artifact on Today’s Document from the National Archives was “Nurse wearing a mask as protection against influenza. September 13, 1918.” As is often the case with items in the daily feed there was a link to additional information ab…

• Free Technology for Teachers: It’s the Last Year for Weebly for Education

  More than a decade ago Weebly was one of the first DIY website builders that recommended to teachers. I helped countless teachers and their students create classroom websites with Weebly for Education.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Way of a Ship – Historical Math Problems

  A couple of weeks ago I picked up an interesting book at my local library. It’s titled The Way of a Ship and it follows the journey of Benjamin Lundy as he sails around Cape Horn in 1885 in one of the last square-rigged commercial sailing boats.

• 20+ interactive digital lessons for class tomorrow – Ditch That Textbook

  You’ve got lessons to plan for tomorrow. Or next week. Or your next unit. Let’s be honest. Time is not something we teachers have an overabundance of.

• Does your school have a Girls Who Code club? Start one today with free curriculum! – NCCE’s Tech Savvy Teacher Blog

  Looking to add a new club tailored to empowering girls while creating fun projects? NCCE partner, Girls Who Code, have created an excellent support system for any educator that wants to bring this opportunity to your school.

• Border Blocks with Minecraft Education Edition – YouTube

  A quick tutorial on how to use border blocks in Minecraft Education Edition. Border blocks prohibit users from entering or leaving the contained border area, no matter how far up or underneath the border blocks. This works in any world where they do …

• how-to-tap-into-your-characters-emotions

• Echoes Enemies List – Classroom Powerups

  I had a request to share the various cards I used for the mini-battles with students. The top slideshow is my current “known enemies” list. The numbers on the top are for a random dice roll when students trigger a battle in that region.

• Allow Blocks with Minecraft Education Edition – YouTube

  A quick tutorial on how to use Allow blocks in Minecraft Education Edtion. Allow blocks enable users from build above the allow blocks in an immutable world (/immutableworld true) and where they do not have worldbuilder status (change usi… https://ww

• Shifting from Time-Consuming Teacher-led Workflows to Sustainable Student-led Workflows – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  I had the pleasure of chatting with Matt Miller this week for my podcast, The Balance. During our conversation, we explored aspects of the teaching profession that are time-consuming and create work-life imbalance.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Find Image Metadata

  Behind every digital image that you capture there is a bunch of information that isn’t visible to the naked eye. That information is called metadata and it includes information like when and where the image was taken, what kind of camera was used, a…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Simple Trick to Make Audio Editing Easier

  In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter I featured five podcasting tips for students and teachers. One of those tips was to “clap and pause.” That tip is demonstrated in the short video that is embedded below.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Places to Find Dozens of Constitution Day Lessons

  This Friday is Constitution Day in the United States. According to federal law all schools that receive federal funding have to teach some type of lesson about the Constitution on this day.

• path-improving-students-emotional-intelligence

  Teachers can merge social and emotional learning and student choice to guide students to better understand themselves. Emotional intelligence includes the capacity to recognize and manage moods and emotions in real-world situations.

• Interactive Media Bias Chart – Ad Fontes Media

  This Interactive Media Bias Chart® is a data visualization that displays measures of news (and “news-like”) articles and sources generated by analysts and staff of Ad Fontes Media. It reflects our most up-to-date ratings of all our rated articles an…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Make Chrome Run a Little Faster

  There was a time when Google Chrome was the new kid on the block and promised faster browsing and faster page load time. That hasn’t been the case for many years now.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Student Video Project – Timelapse of Fall

  The fall is my favorite season of the year. I love waking up to cold, crisp mornings then enjoying mild days outside. In fact, that’s what I’m planning to do tomorrow morning. This time of year always reminds me of one of my favorite uses for time-l…

• A Principal’s Reflections: Four Practical Ways to Blend

  When it comes to blended learning, it is essential first to have an underlying understanding as to why this pedagogical strategy is valuable in the classroom. Let’s take a step back before diving into the nuts and bolts.

• Control Alt Achieve: Screencastify Makes Video Quizzes Easier with Interactive Questions Feature

  It is super easy to use with options to record your screen or webcam or both, as well as annotate on your screen, edit the recording afterwards, and share the final video in many ways.

• Hitting a baseball is the hardest skill to pull off in sports. Here’s why.

  There are few aspects of life where you can fail seven out of 10 times and still be considered great at what you do. With a 30 percent score on the MCAT, you wouldn’t get into medical school. You’d likely lose money if you only won 30 percent of you…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

• It’s Time to Reboot Our Thinking About Adult Learners in a Digitally Transformed World | EdSurge News

  As our economy enters a new era, so too must the world of postsecondary education. Twenty-five years after the Internet became commercially available, post-high school learning—which for adults is now truly often a life-long endeavor—is now a divers…

• NOAA: July Was Earth’s Hottest Month Ever Recorded | Discover Magazine

  Now that mainstream media often gives climate change news prominent coverage (it wasn’t always so), you may well have heard that NOAA today declared July the hottest month on record.

• Your SCM First-Week-Of-School Checklist – Smart Classroom Management

  You no doubt have a packed schedule the first week of school, but classroom management must take precedence. Far and above everything else.

• Dungeons & Dragons & therapy – People News | Particle

• Unlocking Leadership with Minecraft Student Ambassadors at Atlanta Public Schools | Minecraft Education Edition

• Free Technology for Teachers: Image Search and Autodraw – My Favorite Book Creator Design Tools

  Disclosure: Book Creator is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com. This post was written by me, Richard Byrne.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Zoom Tip – Screen Share Zoom Windows

  If you have recently updated the desktop version of Zoom you may have noticed a new option in your “in meeting” settings. That option is “show Zoom windows during screen share.

• Fred Hutch: Socially Relevant Biology Lessons | Science for All

  Fred Hutch has an excellent assortment of socially relevant secondary life science lessons on their Science Education Partnership page. You will find units on: In my work, I find that some folks need examples of what social justice learning might lo…

• STEM Sports | Stem sports, Stem science, Stem classroom

• STEM in Sports — Vivify STEM

  Engaging activities connecting math concepts to sports! Instead of boring worksheets, students will solve problems based on their own collected data and connect the concepts to exciting careers! Students will be surprised to learn how much math is u…

• The Four Cs of 21st Century Skills. Source: Zulama Modern Learning, 2017.  | Download Scientific Diagram

• ROM Minecraft | Royal Ontario Museum

• Minecraft: Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility – Wakelet

• Articulate 360 – Build Highly Interactive E-Learning Courses with Storyline 360

  Storyline 360 is everything I love about Storyline and more. Simple enough for new designers to get their courses designed and produced quickly. Robust enough for power users to design anything they can imagine. And with the responsive player, cours…

• Articulate 360 – One Simple Subscription That Simplifies Every Aspect of E-Learning Development – Articulate 360

  96% of customers say Articulate 360 makes it easy to create more engaging courses that deliver better learning outcomes.

• Synthesia – AI Video Generation Platform

  Create training videos that engage your employees or business partners. They can be easily updated, translated and personalized. Explain, pitch, and sell with video. Easily turn PowerPoint presentations into videos, in 40+ languages, with the conven…

• The Effects of a Discriminatory Dress Code Policy: A Case Study of Mystic Valley Regional Charter School – Miss Teacher Bae

• What Critical Race Theory is And What It Means For Teachers

  Educators around the nation are grappling with so-called “anti-critical race theory” laws that are cropping up around the nation. What’s going on here, and how should educators respond to this development? Civil rights law and policy expert and Hein…

• storage.googleapis.com

• Vision Boards: Start the Year with a Visual Goal Setting Exercise – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  When I began my doctoral program, one of my first assignments was to create a vision board. I was instructed to imagine my life in the future and create a visual to represent what I wanted that reality to look like.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Great Book Creator Resources to Start the New School Year

  Disclosure: Book Creator is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com. This blog post was written by me, Richard Byrne. Book Creator is a versatile digital publishing tool that I’ve been using and recommending for years. And every school year it seems …

• Game Inspired PD Session – Classroom Powerups

  I was invited to lead a district level session on gamification which I changed to The Game Inspired Classroom to avoid the buzz-i-ness of the gamification stereotypes. Below is the Presentation that I gave along with the links to a break-in styled a…

• Sixth Assessment Report

  The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of …

• An esports Code of Conduct

• Home – NASEF | Free High School Esports Clubs

• What Esports Equipment Can Help College Teams Become Competitive? | EdTech Magazine

• Esports Related Professions. Since the turn of the decade, esports… | by Nico Besombes | Medium

• Playing Games Can Build 21st-Century Skills. Research Explains How. | EdSurge News

• Gaming’s Not Just for Kids: What Educators Need to Know About Esports | EdSurge News

• Products – Phygital Labs

• avidopenaccess.org

  By providing your students with voice and choice, you will build student agency and have a more culturally responsive classroom. We live in a technology-rich world, where almost everything can be answered by asking Alexa, Google, or Siri. Teachers a…

• Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Why Do Students Remember Everything That’s on Television and Forget Everything I Say? | American Federation of Teachers

  • if you think about something carefully, you’ll probably have to think about it again, so it should be stored. Thus your memory is not a product of what you want to remember or what you try to remember; it’s a product of what you think about.
  • To teach well, consider what an assignment will actually make students think about (not what you hope they will think about), because that is what they will remember.
  • we remember things that bring about some emotional reaction
  • Things that create an emotional reaction will be better remembered, but emotion is not necessary for learning.
  • Repetition is very important, but not just any repetition will do. Material may be repeated almost indefinitely and still not stick in your memory.
  • Whatever you think about, that’s what you remember. Memory is the residue of thought.
  • The obvious implication for teachers is that they must design lessons that will ensure that students are thinking about the meaning of the material.
  • The human mind seems exquisitely tuned to understand and remember stories—so much so that psychologists sometimes refer to stories as “psychologically privileged,” meaning that they are treated differently in memory than other types of material. I’m going to suggest that organizing a lesson plan like a story is an effective way to help students comprehend and remember.
  • causality
  • conflict
  • complications
  • character
  • A skillful storyteller shows rather than tells the audience what a character is like
  • stories are easy to remember. There are at least two contributing factors here. Because comprehending stories requires lots of medium-difficulty inferences, you must think about the story’s meaning throughout. Your memory for stories is also aided by their causal structure. If you remember one part of the plot, it’s a good guess that the next thing that happened was caused by what you remember.
  • Structure your lessons the way stories are structured, using the four Cs: causality, conflict, complications, and character. This doesn’t mean you must do most of the talking. Small-group work or projects or any other method may be used. The story structure applies to the way you organize the material that you encourage your students to think about, not to the methods you use to teach the material.
  • On its own, the answer is almost never interesting. But if you know the question, the answer may be quite interesting.
  • it’s a useful double-check for every lesson plan to try to anticipate what the lesson will actually make students think about (rather than what you hope it will make them think about).
  • think hard about how you will draw a connection between the attention grabber and the point it’s designed to make.
  • Will students understand the connection, and will they be able to set aside the excitement of the attention grabber and move on? If not, is there a way to change the attention grabber to help students make that transition?
  • Discovery learning has much to recommend it, when it comes to memory. If students have a strong voice in deciding which problems they want to work on, they will likely be engaged in the problems they select, and will likely think deeply about the material, with attendant benefits. An important downside, however, is that what students will think about is less predictable. If students are left to explore ideas on their own, they may well explore mental paths that are not profitable. If memory is the residue of thought, then students will remember incorrect “discoveries” as much as they will remember the correct ones.
  • Discovery learning is probably most useful when the environment gives prompt feedback about whether the student is thinking about a problem in a useful way.
  • There is a conflict in almost any lesson plan, if you look for it. This is another way of saying that the material we want students to know is the answer to a question—and the question is the conflict.
  • students remember what they think about.

• A Principal’s Reflections: RTI and Personalization: A Dynamic Duo

  Recently I was working with the leadership team at Moanalua Middle School (MMS) in Hawaii. One of the coaching topics that came up was how to improve the Response to Intervention (RTI) process as a means to support learners.

• Why You Should Bring Podcasts Into Your Classroom | Cult of Pedagogy

  This post contains Amazon Affiliate 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. Imagine this scene in your classroom: Students are at their desks, completely enga…

• 10 Ways to Introduce SEL & PBL Culture | Mike Kaechele

• Free Technology for Teachers: Nimbus Screenshot – Scrolling Annotated Screen Captures

  Nimbus Screenshot is a free Chrome extension that I’ve been using and recommending for the last half-decade. It offers tools for creating screencast videos and annotated screen capture images. Nimbus Screenshot includes a feature called Select & Scr…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more amazing posts all from last week:

• Stain Solutions | U of I Extension – Chemistry

  We have put together a comprehensive list of stain solutions. Each solution contains the supplies you will need and the preferred method for cleaning the stain. You can browse through the list below or use our search toolbar.

• Tools To Use For Students To Set Up Teacher Appointments | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Now that the state of California has decided most schools are beginning the year with distance learning, my mind is beginning to plan and to race… One question I’m dealing with is how to schedule students for virtual individual meetings.

• In-Person School Is Not Happening; Make Remote Learning Better

  There are few places in the US where the level of COVID-19 in the community is low enough to manage with the available testing and tracing capacity.  In those areas, it could actually be possible for schools to return to in-person teaching.

• Gina Bellafante: Schools Beat Plagues with Outdoor Education, Why Can’t We? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  This is a terrific article that appeared in the New York Times by the regular city columnist Gina Bellafante. It is about how schools beat plagues in the early 20th century by opening outdoor classes.

• Practical Strategies for Flipping Our Classrooms this Fall with Kate Baker

  Blended learning and distance learning will be different this fall. Dig into flipping your classroom and how it looks when you teach effectively in an online classroom. How do you use video effectively? Get Credit! Some schools, districts, and organ…

• formative-assessment-distance-learning

  Focus on feedback: When checking for understanding, it’s important to communicate the feedback that comes from it. As a teacher, you can provide written and/or oral feedback through videos or sound recordings.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Lessons on the Chemistry of Coffee

  One of the things that I’ve missed the most over the last few months is going to my local coffee shop (Cafe Nomad) and having some of the excellent coffee that they brew. Try as I might, the coffee I brew at home just isn’t the same quality of what …

• CER – Data Analysis

  Many of my freshman students come to my class with only limited skills in graphing and data analysis. I spend time during the first chapter (scientific method) giving them practice with making graphs and analyzing data.

• Teach with Fortnite Creative Resources – Wakelet

• Endeavor RX, the First Prescription Video Game, Won’t Be the Last | Observer

  Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing for the first prescription video game to treat ADHD in children, a game titled Endeavor RX from Akili Interactive.

• Flatten Island – Manage the emergencia with your decisions!

• Esports in School – Where is the Learning Potential?

• Esport Notebook Preview

• Immersive Problem Solving with Esports

• STEM Esports Challenges | Minecraft: Education Edition

• Explore Esports with New Minecraft: Education Edition Lessons and Teaching Guide | Minecraft: Education Edition

• Digital Media, Resilience, and Well-Being

• Avoid magical thinking: ‘Design for online’ this fall | @mcleod | Dangerously Irrelevant

  As coronavirus cases continue to increase across the country, numerous school districts are reluctantly announcing that they will be doing ‘remote learning’ again this fall.

• What Teachers Want You to Know About Reopening Schools | by Sarah Gross | Jul, 2020 | Medium

  All over the country, schools are developing reopening plans. All over the country, teachers want nothing more than to go back to normal. But what happens when a teacher is asked to choose between their health and their livelihood?

• Yup. New ‘Blue Whale’ with a Momo-style twist – NetFamilyNews.org

  Here we are again. Remember “Blue Whale,” then “Momo”? Well, the B.W. challenge, or self-harm “game,” has been warmed over and repackaged with a new name and face with the creepiness of a Momo. This time it’s a weird, scary version of the cartoon ch…

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Ways to Make Whiteboard Instructional Videos in Your Web Browser

  Over the last few months I’ve written a bunch of blog posts and made a handful of videos on simple ways to make whiteboard instructional videos in your web browser. These have been popular, in part, because this style of video can be made using tool…

• Free Technology for Teachers: 500+ Icebreaker Questions

  Believe it or not we’re closer to the start of the new school year than we are to the end of the last one. Whether we’re going back into our physical classrooms or staying in an online environment, we’re going to need to get to know our new students…

• What These 6 Food Cravings Really Mean, According to an RD | Nutrition | MyFitnessPal

• Learning, Leading and Reflecting: You should read: No More Telling As Teaching

  Direct instruction or lecturing have always played a significant role in classrooms, but is it really the best way to engage students in the content? No More Telling As Teaching does not demonize lecturing like the title may imply.

• 10 Jamboard templates for distance learning – Ditch That Textbook

  This post has 10 engaging ideas for using Jamboard in your class that will get your students working together, even though they may not be face to face. This post is written by Kris Szajner, a tech integration specialist and former kindergarten teac…

• You need this simple Google Doc of Social Studies skills goodness (and maybe this huge doc of competencies) | History Tech

  We are one day away from the release of the Kansas State Department of Education’s Navigating Change document. The document is currently in the hands of the state board of education for final approval and if they sign off on it, then we’ll all final…

• Engaging Writing Prompts and a Platform for Publishing Student Work

  Write About is a “classroom writing community and publishing platform.” What makes it a powerful EdTech tool is a combination of engaging writing prompts and a flexible platform for publishing student work.

• Fortnite Creative Mode Rube Goldberg Machines – YouTube

• HistoryMaker VR | HistoryMaker VR | Schell Games

• Plasma Games

• Homepage – Hair Trigger

• Free Technology for Teachers: Doozy – Create and Play Fun and Educational Quiz Games

  Doozy is a neat service for creating online quiz games that you can share with anyone and they can play without having to register for an account. The quiz games that you create on Doozy can be multiple choice or short answer questions.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Book Creator Adds New Options for Copying and Re-using Pages

  Book Creator is one of my go-to tools for making ebooks and digital portfolios. In fact, I like it so much that it’s one of the featured tools in my Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. And now there is a new feature that makes Book Creator better…

• Wednesday’s “Must-Read” Articles About School Reopening | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why. is from The NY Times. Israeli Data Show School Openings Were a Disaster That Wiped Out Lockdown Gains is from The Daily Beast.

• Fabricius by Google Arts & Culture

  A tool using the power of AI to help decode ancient languages

• 302 Found

  Historian and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois also discovered his blackness — and its undesirability — at school.

• Library Journal

• Home | TGR EDU Explore

  Learn how you can improve your instructional strategies and engage your students straight from the experts.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Updated and Easier Way to Schedule Events in Google Calendar

  This morning Google announced a small but helpful change to Google Calendar. The web browser version of Google Calendar will now present you with more options when you initially schedule an event on your calendar.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Anonymous Users Blocked from Google Meet in G Suite EDU

  A couple of weeks ago Google announced that seven new features would be added to Google Meet over the coming months. According to an announcement on the G Suite Updates Blog the first of those started to roll out today.

• 3 Types of Learning Crucial for Educators – George Couros

  These three ideas are something that I believe schools should be intentional about in their practice, as it is beneficial to learning now and in the future. “The classroom as a whole is always way smarter than the teacher as an individual.

• Learning is Feedback: And how to do it online – Joel Speranza

  Let’s imagine you walk into a class of 25 students and begin teaching. You are about to receive ALOT of feedback. The moment you finish that sentence, you’ll be receiving feedback. It’s in the student’s eyes.

• 5 reasons why online learning is a crucial part of education

  Education technology refers to a range of technology, programmes and software that are used to facilitate learning.

• Dynamic Learning v. Static Learning (DO THIS, NOT THAT) | Shake Up Learning

  Do This, Not That! Here’s a handy infographic to help you see ways to create more dynamic learning experiences!

• GitHub – QuirkyCort/gears: Generic Educational Robotics Simulator

  Generic Educational Robotics Simulator. Contribute to QuirkyCort/gears development by creating an account on GitHub.

• Robot Virtual Worlds | ROBOTC | VEX & NXT Simulator

  The Virtual Brick for MINDSTORMS is a tool designed to help educators teach mathematics, computational thinking skills, and programming through simulation. The Virtual Brick is compatible with the NXT-G, EV3, and LabVIEW for LEGO Mindstorms programm…

• GearsBot

  GearsBot ▶ World Reset

• Today’s Four Articles About School Reopening That Are Worth Your Time | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The media blitz about school reopening continues. Here are four from the past twenty-four hours that are worth a read.

• A Principal’s Reflections: Purchasing Devices Does Not Equate to Learning

  The COVID19 pandemic unearthed many harsh realities for education across the globe. One of the more glaring issues was the vast digital divide that still exists in many places, especially the United States.

• Four Pandemic Resources Useful For When We’re Teaching About It | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  How 2020 Remapped Your Worlds is from Bloomberg and is a good lesson idea – have students draw maps of how “their” world looks right now.

• Full Sail Science: The Twitch Inspired Classroom

  I’ve been streaming on Twitch for almost a year now. The experience has been amazing. My online connections to wonderful people has expanded and strengthened. I had several goals when starting the journey as a streamer. One was to improve my practic…

• If the coronavirus is really airborne, we might be fighting it the wrong way | MIT Technology Review

  Airborne transmission would mean there are certain solutions we really need to focus on.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great blog posts in case you missed them last week:

• A Better Fall Is Possible – The Atlantic

  States with low rates of the virus are in a position to reopen their schools this September—but they should do so very carefully, and with a focus on younger kids. The sirens have quieted in New York City.

• No One Wins, But No One Dies: What School Must Look Like in Fall of 2020 | The Suitcase Scholar

• Jack Schneider: Why Study History? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Jack Schneider is a historian of education and a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. He wrote this essay at my request. Why study history? It’s a legitimate question during times like these, when the future seems so uncertain.

• But How Do We Build Community? Ideas for Virtual and Hybrid Learning – Pernille Ripp

  While my district has yet to release its plan for the fall here in Wisconsin, things are not looking so good.

• How To Thrive During The Upcoming Covid-19 School Year – Smart Classroom Management

  Ready or not, it looks like most of us will be teaching on campus next month. What that will look like is still up in the air. There are many more questions to be answered and policies to be ironed out—and probably will be up until the first day of …

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Watching Comet Neowise at 3:30 AM

  I got up at 3 AM this morning to view COMET Neowise. The COMET had passed the sun on July 3, getting as close as 27 million miles, and is now moving back out into the solar system. Its orbital period, the time to complete a loop from near the sun to…

• Equity versus Equality (Triple Participation) – CES 101 Fall 2018

• ‘Outdoors Act’ would repair national parks, protect land and address recreation needs | Puget Sound Institute

  It appears that the political stars are lining up for what some people are calling the most significant environmental legislation in decades. Billions of dollars have been laid upon the table for parks, recreation facilities and environmentally sens…

• FREE Chapter: Toward More Equitable Learning in Science | Science Education for Antiracism

  The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) currently has a FREE chapter from the book Helping Student Make Sense of the World using Next Generation Science & Engineering Practices. This book is a compilation of chapters from multiple authors.

• Digital Learning: Best Practices for Educators – Educating Through Crisis

• Optimizing Concurrent Classrooms: Teaching Students In The Room And Online Simultaneously

  As students head back to campus, teachers face an unprecedented challenge: managing students in the room and online in the same class at the same time. Four teaching practices can elevate student experiences and outcomes in the “concurrent classroom…

• Learn How to Teach Online with This Free Course

  Do you need help in learning how to teach online? Here’s a free 3-hour course, Launching Online Learning, to get you started. Advancement Courses is a sponsor of my blog and podcast. They also shared in the 10 Essential Online Learning Best Practice…

• Using tradebooks to make your life easier and your students smarter | History Tech

  Long time readers know how much I love maps. I don’t really know for sure when the infatuation started but Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton may have had something to do with it.

• Khan Academy and the Features You Might Have Missed – Class Tech Tips

  I’m not sure when I really came across Khan Academy for the first time. In many ways it seems like it has been around forever, at least where conversations on EdTech integration, video tutorials, and flipped learning is concerned.

• 8 Ideas Designed to Engage Students In Active Learning Online |

  I’ve spent the last four months working with teachers all over the country (virtually, of course) as they navigate the uncharted waters of online and blended learning. The majority of teachers I have spoken with did not enjoy their initial experienc…

• How to Use Fortnite in the Classroom @coolcatteacher

• Upcoming Virtual Races at Virtual Strides

  Original Race Period: Oct. 1 – 31, 2017*** Medals Are Still Available! ***Distances: 5k, 10k, Half MarathonCost: $25 during early registration; Then $29FREE Shipping!To Benefit: The Bone Marrow Foundation Register Now!

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Know Your Core 4 for Online Learning

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

• STEAM Scope and Sequence – Classroom Snapshots

  I teach elementary STEAM, as a specialist.  Students in Kindergarten – 5th Grade visit the STEAM Makerspace for 60 minutes, once a week.  I also see 4-year-old Kindergartners for 30 minutes a week.

• Funding Your STEAM Program – Classroom Snapshots

  Starting your STEAM program from scratch?  I was in your position when our program was started. While outfitting your program can seem like a daunting task — it is doable.

• 5 Things You Might Not Know About Adobe Spark – Class Tech Tips

  Have you used Adobe Spark with your students? If you’re passionate about creativity in the classroom, you’ve probably heard of the Spark tools. They make movie-making, website creation, and graphic design possible for students.

• How We Began Online Learning Successfully @coolcatteacher

  As we began distance learning, I started writing and reflecting. I wrote this piece back in March as this began and in the hustle and bustle, I didn’t publish it. I just forgot it was there.

• 42 Distance Learning and Inspiring Resources for Educators @coolcatteacher

  Note that I shared these last week in my newsletter. I always share my best items and a personal note of encouragement each week in the newsletter. Go to https://ift.tt/3f8kNwG to sign up. In 2017, Forbes named Vicki the number 2 edupreneur in the U…

• A Lever and a Place to Stand: A Feedback Loop with Floop

  In my live classroom, when students encounter a new concept, I check homework for completion and provide feedback (correct answers, worked solutions, answers to their questions) in real time. In my remote pandemic classroom, this was something I let…

• The Wonder of Science

• How To Launch An Esports Team During COVID-19 • Teched Up Teacher

• NGSS science promotes phenomena-based learning

• Adapting Middle and High School Science Lessons for Distance Learning | Edutopia

• Genially, the tool for bringing your content to life

• mobile.twitter.com

  So, I had not heard a single plan for reopening schools that addresses the realities of both parents and teachers and also keeps kids safe. Until today. It is FAR from ideal, but it sounds to me like it COULD work and we could start planning for tod…

• Read to Lead | 21st Century Literacy Games and Curriculum

  Your students are about to discover that SIGN UP FOR FREE LOG IN SIGN UP FOR FREE LOG IN arrow_downward arrow_upward 3 digital learning games in careers relevant to students (450 minutes of reading time!) 180,000 potential words read per student (eq…

• How to Weave in Backstory Without Stalling Out Your Story

  Please welcome back Tiffany Yates Martin to Writer Unboxed today! Tiffany has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and bestselling authors as well as newer writers.

• GameChangineer Login

  GAMECHANGINEER Create, Plan, Write, Play, and Learn. Unleash the Power of English to Computational Thinking and Programming… …Discover the Logic and Critical Thinking Behind Popular Games.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Alternatives to Smore

  Over the weekend I answered an email from a reader who was looking for an alternative to using Smore to create online posters and newsletters to share with teachers and parents. Smore is great for some people, but it can get a little too pricey for …

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: #CampYouTube for Summertime Activities for Youth

  In many places traditional summer camp is not in session, but that doesn’t mean that summertime activities have to stop completely. YouTube is bringing #CampYouTube to everyone this summer.

• 9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face | Cult of Pedagogy

  It’s a pretty safe bet that most teachers will be doing some form of online teaching in the coming year. Maybe you’ll do it full-time, maybe it will be some kind of hybrid model, but one thing is for sure: This time around you won’t be dropped into …

• educate.bankstreet.edu

• We can fix the climate as we reboot the economy – here’s how | New Scientist

  The drop in carbon emissions due to coronavirus lockdowns won’t last. But as we rebuild, we have a unique opportunity to make the structural changes required to hit net-zero targets, says Corinne Le Quéré

• The Nature of Games — University XP

  What is a game? What makes a game? Games have been part of human history for many years. But do we even know what we are playing? What makes them fun, interesting, unique, and engaging? What’s in a game? (a name)

• Control Alt Achieve: New Pear Deck Critical Thinking Templates for Google Slides

  Pear Deck is an awesome add-on for Google Slides that lets you add interactive elements to your presentations including multiple choice, text entry, numeric entry, drawing, and draggable activities. Now Pear Deck has added a whole new set of slide t…

• Remotely: Push Slides to Students Slides – Teacher Tech

  Using Google Slides for Remote Learning is a great idea!! I have seen a ton of people posting choice boards and agendas using Google Slides. You can create ONE Google Slides and share the link to that. Update your Slides (new ones at the TOP) and au…

• Scheduling the COVID-19 School Year

  Five days a week, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. That traditional school day-so coveted now for its normalcy and essential contribution to how our families, communities, and economy function-probably won’t make a full comeback this fall.

• Is it safe to send kids back to school? | MIT Technology Review

  It might depend on the answer to these three questions.

• Teachers Are Living in a Tinderbox of Stressful Conditions. These Scientific Approaches Can Help. | EdSurge News

• A Principal’s Reflections: Don’t Forget About Educator Safety When Reopening Schools

  We are all in the midst of some very challenging times, regardless of our profession. When it comes to education, schools are grappling with reopening safely here in the United States. There are no easy answers or choices here.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Check out this selection of posts from last week:

• Ocean acidification gets attention in four bills passed by the U.S. House | Watching Our Water Ways

  The issue of ocean acidification gained some traction this week in the U.S. House of Representatives, where bipartisan support led to the approval of four bills designed to bring new ideas into the battle to save sea life from corrosive waters.

• How Starting with a Science Profession is an Easy Way to Find and Make STEAM Lessons – Mrs. Harris Teaches…

  To sum it up, researching about a science profession can provide inspiration and build background knowledge to help you find pre-made STEAM lessons or create your own STEAM lessons! Disclaimer: This is just one method that works for me. Easy is a ma…

• California: Hot Off the Presses: Charter School Task Force Report | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  The Task Force was charged with making recommendations to reform the state’s 1992 charter law.

• Free Technology for Teachers: This is Clickbait – A Lesson on Being a Discerning News Consumer

  A couple of weeks ago TED-Ed released a video about spotting misleading headlines. I quickly added that lesson to my list of resources for helping students become discerning news consumers. This week TED-Ed released another video that I’m adding to …

• Badass Teachers Association Blog: Charter School Teacher Introduces Elizabeth Warren at Rally by Steven Singer

  Originally posted at: https://gadflyonthewallblog.

• 5 Ideas for Gamification in the Workplace – Successful Blog –

  Gamification is a tool used by businesses to achieve new goals. However, with the emphasis on fresh new technology, many small companies are hesitant to adopt the strategy. Implementing gamification is easier than you think and can lead to significa…

• I Dare You to Care About This Math Problem – Teacher Tech

  An adult teacher friend of mine is taking an Algebra class. This class uses Pearson MyLab. He shared a few questions with me and it’s no surprise he’s frustrated and not doing well.

• Stadia: Google’s game-streaming system is coming November – CNN

  Google’s video-game streaming service, Stadia, will start rolling out in November, the company announced Thursday on a YouTube livestream. The system, which was originally announced in March, will act like a Netflix for video games.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Moving From Google Drive to OneDrive

  In response to yesterday’s post about moving files from one Google account to another, this morning I woke up to three emails from readers wondering about moving out of a Google (G Suite) environment and into a Microsoft environment.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Moving Files From One Google Drive to Another

  This week I received an email from a reader who asked about what how to move Google Drive items from a school account to a personal. That same reader also asked about how to handle Google Classroom materials at the end of the year (that’s a question…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Archive Google Classroom – How to Remove Google Classroom Materials from Drive

  As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently received an email from a reader who wanted to know what to do with Google Classroom classes and materials at the end of the school year. The first thing to do is to archive the class when you’re certain…

• The Limits of “Just Teaching Math” – dy/dan

  If I ever imagine that I can see the edges of teaching, if I ever tell myself that I’m apprehending all of its angles and dimensions, I just call up my friends Sarah Kingston, Ben Spencer, and Megan Snyder at Beach Elementary School and ask them if …

• playing-teen-sports-may-protect-from-some-damages-of-childhood-trauma

  As a kid, Molly Easterlin loved playing sports. She started soccer at age four, and then in high school, she played tennis and ran track. Sports, Easterlin believes, underlie most of her greatest successes.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Veescope Live – A Free Green Screen App for Your iPad

  Veescope Live is a free iPad app for creating green screen videos.

• “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project” Is An Amazing & Horrifying Collection – With Teacher Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The Library of Congress’ Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1938 collection “contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.

• 4 things I learned during my #civilwarsupertour | History Tech

  Maybe it’s there. Maybe it’s not.

• Prevent Plagiarism | Urkund

  Use a plagiarism prevention software that will work for you, not against you. Keen to learn more about how Urkund can work for you in preventing plagiarism? Fill in the form below and we’ll get in touch with you.

• Working to map the air everywhere and help #BeatAirPollution

  Air quality is an important issue and can be difficult to map on hyperlocal level, which is why we’ve taken time to make sure we get it right. We’ve made a lot of progress. After launching air quality maps for Oakland, CA with Aclima and EDF, we exp…

• Learning from Games: Escapism – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

  As gamification practitioners, we are looking to utilise things that games do really well in areas that could desperately do with being more engaging in some way. I read somewhere recently that “in games, we are trying to become our best selves” or …

• Motivating Reluctant STEAM Learners: Changing how you assess can inspire students • Teched Up Teacher

  In the Innovation Lab, my makerspace for 4th and 5th graders, I see students once a week for the entire school year. To help students focus on the process of creation and iteration, I changed the way I assess their work.

• Stanford NGSS Assessment Project | Science for All

  As we continue to implement the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards many of us are still seeking examples and models of effective three-dimensional assessment tasks.

• Stonewall Forever: Honoring LGBTQ+ history through a living monument

  Many people have shaped my life—my parents who brought me into the world; Miss Moran, my fifth grade teacher, who pushed me to be a better student; my late mentor Bill McCarthy who helped guide my career early in my professional life.

• Mo Physics Mo Problems: Suite Science Practices: Investigations

  What GSuite and EdTech Tools can students use to Design and Carry Out Investigations?

• Making a Comeback: Reclaiming Assessment as a Motivator in your Classroom | All Things Assessment

  I appreciate how patient my daughter is with me when I ask her questions about school.

• Why Digital Leadership Can’t Wait – Class Tech Tips

  Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Eric Sheninger share his passion for digital leadership. You can imagine that when I heard about the new edition of his bestselling book, I had plenty of questions! The first edition sits on …

• Live Long and Prosper…: MemeWise – Thinking About Science

  I don’t understand how people who drive cars, fly in airplanes, cook meals, use clocks, talk on telephones, trust that their tap water is clean, smell flowers, watch TV, and take their medicines can deny science when it doesn’t suit their biases.

• To Understand Teach for America, See Who Funds The Organization | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Follow the money is a basic principle. To understand an organization, see who funds it.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Lessons for Teachers about The World’s Largest Minority Group

  Victor Calise, Commissioner at the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law, shared several lessons about the world’s largest minority group with attendees at the NYC Depar…

• A Principal’s Reflections: The Problem With Zeros

  The dreaded zero. For many students, this number elicits a certain amount of fear and anxiety that all assignments are turned in on time. I, for one, felt this way and made sure that everything was turned in when it was due.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are this past week’s selection of amazing blog posts:

• Become A Young Technology Journalist – Classroom Aid

  This is an initiative from the Association of International Researchers for Future Education (AIRFED). Computer science technologies such as programming algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) or robotics can do good or bad to humans, depending on …

• What It Really Means To Have High Expectations – Smart Classroom Management

  It’s thrown around a lot. But what does it really mean?

• Teaching Bias Through Inference and Identity – Pernille Ripp

  I can’t remember the last week we had a full week of school. Between snow days, cold days, and now an ice day, I think it was December the last time I had the pleasure of being with our students for five days in a row.

• NASA Research Challenge for Students – Class Tech Tips

• Free Technology for Teachers: Six Online Whiteboard Drawing Tools

  Thanks to an email from a reader I was alerted that a few of the online whiteboard tools that I have reviewed in the past are no longer working. Here’s an updated list of online whiteboard tools that you and your students can use for free.

• Let Them Read Graphic Novels – Josh Stumpenhorst

  Not too long ago, I was in our local public library and heard a mom tell her son he couldn’t check out a graphic novel. She told him he had to get “real” books. I overheard this as I was walking with my son to the checkout with his 9 graphic novels.…

• Building models to understand and mitigate brain injury

  Students learn about the regions of the brain and their function. Then, they build a model to visualize in real-time what happens when the brain collides with the skull. Next, they design methods to protect and mitigate the effects of collisions.

• STEM Check: True STEM? Flawed STEM? – TeacherGeek

• How To Create Video Subtitles Quickly For Free

  The future of internet content and social media sharing is in video. But many social media platforms mute their videos by default. So to hear the video, you must either turn on the volume or have subtitles attached. To be safe, it’s better to have b…

• Google Sheets: Translating Languages – Teacher Tech

  I was honored this week to speak with educators in Barcelona. While I know some Spanish, I am not fluent. Wanting to use a Google Form to collect responses from audience members I knew that my Spanish was not sufficient to quickly translate and unde…

• Boredom – E-learning’s Worst Enemy and Gamification – Its Solution

  Do you know what is learning’s worst enemy? Boredom. If you don’t believe me, think about this: Have you ever zoned out in a meeting or a classroom? Most probably, you have. Do you remember what was being said in that meeting or class? Chances are y…

• Predictions for Podcasting

  Tom Webster’s Podcast Movement keynote about podcasting’s need to find “The Show” was a watershed moment for the industry in 2018. It feels like a message that podcasting needed to hear.

• Control Alt Achieve: 4 Fantastic Rubric Tools for Google Docs

  On the 4th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… four rubric writers. 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 …

• From Consumers to Producers: Helping Kids Make Screen Time Meaningful • Teched Up Teacher

  Over Christmas break, I spent some time with my in-laws down in Ocean City. One of my favorite people to hang out with was there: my 3 year-old-niece. She is hysterical, 3 going on 16, and she loves to watch YouTube.

• Q.W.I.Q. Cornell Notes: The 1st Date of Note Taking – Classroom Powerups

  Content Matters. I know this has become a somewhat controversial position to hold as a teacher but having information to draw from is a necessary foundation for critical and creative thinking.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Anchor Has Been Acquired by Spotify

  Anchor, one of the best new podcast creation tools to emerge in the last few years, has been acquired by Spotify. In an email sent to users and in this blog post Anchor’s founders announced the acquisition.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Building Image-based Search Challenges

  On Monday I wrote about a couple of image-based search challenges that I do with students. I use those challenges as a way to get students to think about all of the search tools and search strategies that they have at their disposal.

• An LAUSD Star is Born – Carl J. Petersen – Medium

  Tyler Okeke is the student representative on the LAUSD School Board. At Tuesday’s meeting, he made sure the voice of his fellow students was heard.

• Games Can Breed Uncivil Behavior. They Can Also Teach Digital Citizenship. | EdSurge News

• EdTech is Not Scary: 5 Things to Start With – Teacher Tech

  The world interacts digitally. We are failing our students by not helping them to be users of digital technology. As we debate the value of teaching cursive it is undeniable that students will be using technology outside of school in the real world.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Couple of Free Online Alternatives to Audacity

  On Monday someone Tweeted at me a request for an alternative to Audacity that his students could use online to record and edit audio tracks. My first thought was to try SoundTrap, but they no longer offer a free version of their product. So my next …

• The Most Common English Idioms – e-Learning Infographics

  Although English idioms don’t make sense at first, these unique expressions (together with proverbs) add substance and humor to our conversations.

• 16 Most Wanted Skills By The Recruiters In 2019 Infographic – e-Learning Infographics

  Learning is a process that never stops. Only those who can understand this age-old truth can succeed in their careers and be the pioneers of their field. What is it that differentiates you from any other candidate in your domain? It is your skills.

• Is Artificial Intelligence(AI) Revolving The eCommerce In Future? – e-Learning Infographics

  When you talk about Artificial Intelligence there are many changes that have been grown and implemented over different platforms and especially over eCommerce platform. The technology has been attracting everyone to get more innovative into the onli…

• Safer Internet Day 2019: Risk vs harm, online & offline – NetFamilyNews.org

  What better way to mark Safer Internet Day than with clarity on the difference between risk and harm? Because, where online safety’s concerned, the two words have been used interchangeably – inaccurately – for years.

• 14+ Fabulous Valentine’s Day STEAM Activities Students Will Love – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Valentine’s Day is around the corner! This holiday is a great time for students to be creative and share how much they appreciate and care for others.

• Is the Charter School Market Over-Saturated? Yes. | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Remember the stories about the long waiting lists to get into charters? In Los Angeles, more than 80% of all charter schools have vacancies.

• KQED

  MindshiftJan 21 Five Ways to Help Children with ADHD Develop Their Strengths Dr. Sharon Saline focuses on self-Control, Compassion, Collaboration, Consistency and Celebration as a roadmap for reducing family stress and equipping children with ADHD w…

• Lessons from Schrödinger’s Cat — The Learner’s Way

• The line of best fit and scatterplots in Google Sheets – Using Technology Better

• K20 LEARN

• Make Your Own Bitmoji Stickers for You and Your Students

• Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: [Guest Post!] Student Feedback and Standards Based Grading

  So, your district is considering a switch to Standards Based Grading (SBG)….

• 5-ways-you-can-ditch-that-burnout

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two Image-based Search Challenges to Use With Your Students

  One of my favorite ways to reinforce the use of good search strategies to students is to show interesting pictures and have students try to make a long list of questions about what they see. Then I let the students try to find the answers to those q…

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: 2 Tips to Connect with More Families on Facebook

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

• Let’s Give Our Teaching Language a Makeover | Cult of Pedagogy

  Consider two classrooms: Room 1 and Room 2. The students in both rooms are working in groups on an activity, and in each room, one of the groups has gotten off task. In Room 2, the teacher approaches the off-task group and says, “This is not like yo…

• Reflecting on Competition |

  I am pretty competitive. It is a short list of things I won’t try to turn into some sort of contest.  I don’t just like to run, I like to race. And while I like getting steps with my FitBit, I also really like seeing how I am doing against my friend…

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