Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Last week’s pics of amazing blog posts:

• Teaching in the Concurrent Classroom: Four Strategies to Make it Work – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  On Thursday night, I presented a 30-minute webinar with AJ Juliani for educators focused on the concurrent classroom.

• Control Alt Achieve: 8 Ambient Sound Websites to Help Students Focus

  What helps you focus when reading, writing, or getting work done? Do you need a totally silent room, or does some amount of ambient noise help you? For some people, students included, having sound in the background can actually help them focus bette…

• Voice Notes & Feedback: Mote vs. Talk & Comment – i ❤ edu

  Greetings friends! I know I have been terrible over the last month about creating new content. I can break down my struggle into two main reasons: 1.) I have struggled to find my creativity during the pandemic and 2.

• (PDF) Can PBIS Build Justice Rather Than Merely Restore Order?

  ChapterPDF Available Can PBIS Build Justice Rather Than Merely Restore Order? Authors: Download full-text PDF In a multicase qualitative study, inclusive school leaders attempted to move their schools from the excessive use of suspension; they emplo…

• earths-oldest-rock-found-on-moon-get-facts-apollo-14-zircons

  Scientists may have just found the oldest intact Earth rock—on the moon. A study published Thursday in Earth and Planetary Science Letters makes the case that one of the rocks collected by Apollo 14 astronauts in 1971 contains a fragment of Earth’s …

• Wisconsin Science and STEM Education: Supporting Students in Asking Questions in Science and STEM

  What do you notice and wonder about the phenomenon represented by this graph? This lack of students’ questions not only misses a critical area of science, it’s also an equity issue.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Type Studio – A Truly Unique Way to Edit Your Videos

  Type Studio is a new video editing tool. When I used it for the first time yesterday I actually said aloud, “Whoa! That’s Awesome!” What made me say that was using the editor to clip a section of video.

• Classroom Consent – Classroom Powerups

  Voice and Choice is an entirely overused phrase in the modern classroom. This not a subtweet of anyone in particular but there is definitely some ‘buzziness’ factor in the phrase. The original intent, I believe, was to indicate some personalization …

• didnt-get-enough-financial-aid-for-college-you-can-ask-for-more-money

  Last spring, the pandemic stole Maddie Harvey’s job on campus in the Dean of Students office. She was finishing up her senior year at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and without the income from her job, she wasn’t going to have enou…

• Lesson Plan: Discuss 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” | Lesson Plan | PBS NewsHour Extra

  For a Google doc version of this lesson, click here. You will need to make a copy of the Google doc for a version you can edit. In this lesson, students examine the poetry of Amanda Gorman, who was chosen to read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Pres…

• Teaching Inauguration Poetry – Pernille Ripp

  We have been sinking into poetry the last few weeks, discovering found word poetry and trying to decide what poetry really is. We have read and listened to poetry.

• How to use anything on the web as an LMS assignment – Ditch That Textbook

  Lots of apps, websites, and digital tools around the Internet let students answer questions or leave responses directly on their app. After they do, you’re able to view their responses, leave feedback, grade them, etc. Some examples:

• Let’s be honest. None of us are Amanda Gorman. But your students should be. | History Tech

  Let’s be honest. Very few of us are poets. Very few of us probably even read a lot of poetry.

• New CNN Video: “‘Overjoyed’: Hear from poet who stole the show at inauguration” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  You’ll want to watch tonight’s CNN interview with Amanda Gorman. You might also be interested in HERE ARE FIVE LESSON PLANS ABOUT AMANDA GORMAN’S INAUGURATION POEM- SHARE OTHERS.

• Free Technology for Teachers: ReadWorks Adds an Offline Mode for Students

  ReadWorks is a non-profit service that I’ve been recommending for years. It is a free service that provides high-quality fiction and non-fiction articles and lesson plans for K-12 ELA teachers. Every article on ReadWorks is accompanied by a Lexile s…

• JAM: Giant Transparent Blank Rectangle – Teacher Tech

  I am writing a book with Kim Mattina on Google Jamboard. She has a tip to add a giant textbox over the frame to prevent students from accidentally moving objects on the frame.

• To A Greater Glory [National Catholic Reporter] | The Jose Vilson

  In my latest op-ed, I wrote an article as an open letter to the Biden administration that harkened back to my Jesuit education (Nativity Mission, Xavier High). Here’s a little bit: In this way, I’m asking us to live out our stated values politically…

• Video: Acapella Science- Vaccine Wellerman Let’s Go | Science for All

  File this under fun, trendy and topical. Acapellascience is back with a (too) short music video about the COVID vaccine in the tradition of a sea shanty. If you loop the video it aligns perfectly and you can just listen non-stop all day. Enjoy.

• Road of Trials – Hero’s Journey Lesson Planning – Civil Rights Quest – Classroom Powerups

  Link to Civil Rights Quest Google Site with a full YouTube walkthrough below.

• How to Make Classroom Games with Easy, Awesome Educaplay

  This week, I began using Educaplay to make fun classroom learning games for my students. In addition to easy game creation, sending the games to Google Classroom was easy, as was student work, automatic grading, and engagement. Many of us who have b…

• GamiLab

• What does it take to reintroduce and contain a herd of bison to a national park? | CBC News

  Years of planning, meticulous tracking — and a really cool fence. With one year left in the Banff Bison Reintroduction Project, facilitators say it has been going well.

• A Fun and Free Inauguration Day Resource – Not So Wimpy Teacher

  On Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the U.S. Inauguration Day, which only happens once every four years, is a special opportunity to teach students about history in real time.

• Election 2.0 Project | Mike Kaechele

  Something a little different this week. A project idea for the social studies classroom. How would you modify the election process in the United States?

• Tips for Creating a Virtual Classroom Library for Students

  Once upon a time, schools and classrooms offered libraries with a variety of books for students to borrow. Today, due to the pandemic, in most schools borrowing physical books has been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are my weekly blog post picks! Enjoy 🙂

• 5 Free Handwriting Templates for Jamboard – Teacher Tech

  I created some templates for Jamboard that would allow students to practice handwriting if they have an iPad or a touchscreen chromebook or touchscreen PC. These templates are free. This template is 1 inch lines with a half inch dotted line in the m…

• Resource Hub | Connections Academy

  When homeschooling, parents may struggle to keep kids on task. Try these 9 teacher-tested motivation techniques to help students stay focused on learning.

• How to Create Interactive Jamboard – YouTube

  Learn how to create eye-popping, interactive Jamboard. Feel free to use these Jamboard templates: :

• Should You Really Give Fs During A Pandemic? – Smart Classroom Management

  It’s a tough time for many students. But removing the bare minimum standard is a mistake that does a disservice to the very students he’s trying to help.

• Ideas and Resources for Outdoor Learning – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Students spend so much time with their digital devices and indoors. When possible we should provide them opportunities to learn outdoors and play. Moving outdoors uplifts students’ emotions, teaches them how to socialize and problem solve with other…

• Express Yourself! Emoji Resources for Math, Science, English and SEL – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Our learners are communicating on digital devices more than ever. Emojis allow students to express themselves, share their personalities, and add emotion to their messages. Emojis also represent an international language.

• A Conferencing Strategy for Online, Blended, or Concurrent Classes – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  When I began my career in education, I believed the value I brought to the classroom was my subject area expertise cultivated as an English major at UCLA and my pedagogical expertise honed while working on my teaching credential and Masters in Educa…

• Dec. Quest of the Month: Playwriting prompts for drama class – Classcraft Blog

  All the world’s a stage, And all the Classcraft characters merely players; … especially in teacher Chad Schuermeyer’s quest.

• Hubs – Private social VR in your web browser

• Jamboard: How to Set a Custom Background (ex: make a digital worksheet for students to complete) – YouTube

• ARVRinEDU Advent Calendar

  I will share a new tool each day to inspire innovative ways to use augmented and virtual reality with your students. Watch the list grow daily! Print out this pencil to draw in augmented reality.

• This Year Has Taken a Toll on Educators. Let’s Make Sure to Support Them in 2021. | EdSurge News

• What Is Hybrid Learning? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

  With the rise of education technology, schools have adopted teaching methods that diverge from the typical classroom environment. Distance learning is being used at a global scale, and many educational institutions are starting to implement hybrid l…

• 5-things-weve-learned-about-virtual-school-during-the-pandemic

  Deborah Rosenthal starts her virtual kindergarten class on Zoom every morning with a song — today, it’s the Spanish version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Her students clap along.

• How one district helps students stay focused on class – Classcraft Blog

  Learning during the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been easy on anyone. Students have had to adjust to a school year of extraordinary change and uncertainty. Between the external stress, social distancing, and new learning models, students are struggling.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Made Some Meet Settings Sticky

  Google has steadily added features to Google Meet throughout the fall (spring for my friends in the southern hemisphere). The latest feature is one that should prove to be a time-saver for some teachers. The latest update to Google Meet makes some s…

• Problematic Themes?: Civ VI, Ludonarrative Dissonance, and Colonizer Mentality – Classroom Powerups

  Long write up about weird theory of Ludonarrative Dissonance and Colonizer mentality in Civ VI. The next post will ask questions about implications on Classroom Themes. Back at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic EPIC Games gave away Civilization…

• Thinking Routines Part 2: Driving Deeper Thinking Online – Dr. Catlin Tucker

  In a previous blog, I shared a collection of thinking routines developed and published by Project Zero at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. These routines are incredibly effective structures to encourage students to think more deeply about ide…

• Mt. Everest Just Got a Little Bit Taller — The Adventure Blog

  The tallest mountain on the planet just got a little bit taller. Or shorter, depending on who you believe. Yesterday, Nepal and China jointly released the findings of two high profile surveys of the Himalayan giant, with the results making headlines…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Share Books in Google Classroom and Google Sites

  One of my favorite features of Google Books is the option to clip sections of free ebooks to share with students. It’s also possible to share with your students an entire ebook from Google Books. You can then use those clips or full books to spark d…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Reduce Noise in Zoom Meetings

  On Monday I shared Mike Tholfsen’s tutorial on how to reduce background noise in Microsoft Teams calls. That prompted a few people to ask me if the same thing can be done in Zoom. Yes, you can filter background noise with some tools that are built i…

• Evidence Board Examples – Classroom Powerups

  For a detailed explanation of this project go to Using Crime Scene Evidence Boards: An Investigation into the Death of Reconstruction. This project went amazingly well but I do have a few reflections. The first was that it took a solid hour for stud…

• Level Up Your Virtual Teaching with Screencasting Tools! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  The transformation to virtual learning means teachers now act as the tech support for students and parents who are also new to virtual learning. Screencasting tools are a lifesaver for virtual instruction.

• Improving Quality of Peer Feedback with TAG Feedback – Mari Venturino

  I previously blogged about using Google Forms for peer feedback, and briefly mentioned TAG Feedback. I am excited to share an entire post dedicated to my favorite peer feedback strategy. Early on in my teaching career, I had my students do a project…

• This Is The Text I’ve Been Sending To Students With Spotty Class Attendance | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  As part of my pre-holiday “push” to “stop the bleeding” in my classes (see HERE’S HOW I’M COMMUNICATING WITH STUDENTS ABOUT SHAKING UP OUR CLASSES and I’m Worried About My Students – Very Worried.

• I’m Worried About My Students – Very Worried. And Here Is What I’m Planning To Do About It | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Earlier this week, I posted FAILING GRADES SKYROCKETING FOR VULNERABLE STUDENT POPULATIONS – OUR SCHOOLS HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM.  In it, I discussed what seems to be happening in many schools – the number of F’s are increasing.

• Create Online Parent’s Field Trip Permission Slips- Free!

  Permission Slips Go Directly To The Parent’s Mobile Phone – Take Kids Out of The Equation! We Survive By Adding A Small Convenience Fee To Parents Who Choose To Pay Through The App.  There Is NEVER a Cost To You.

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: What are the Secrets to Identifying Clouds? Part I

  I often get emails and questions about clouds. People are particularly interested in learning how to identify clouds and to understand what they imply about upcoming weather. What is meant by the arcane compound names, such as altostratus, cirrostra…

• Get Them Moving with Brain Breaks! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time is unhealthy for both teachers and students. One quick way to add movement is with a brain break. These breaks last a few minutes and get students and you moving through quick exercises, danc…

• Engaging Students Remotely – The Reflective Educator

  Many teachers have told me that they have difficulty feeling like their students are engaged in their remote classes. They open up their synchronous Zoom sessions and see 20 black squares with the video off. They see 30% of the students completing h…

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Virtual Tour and Videos for Learning About Breaking the Sound Barrier

  Chuck Yeager died yesterday at the age of 97. He was the first person to fly an airplane faster than the speed of sound. The BBC’s article about Chuck Yeager’s passing included some archival footage of his flight in the Bell X-1 that he flew.

• Using Crime Scene Evidence Boards: Planning an Investigation into the Death of Reconstruction – Classroom Powerups

  How did Reconstruction die? Doesn’t that sound like the plot of a procedural TV show? There is a murder and a team of dedicated investigators gather evidence and piece together clues to solve the mystery.

• Make Elephant Toothpaste – Scientific American

• Privacy and equity alternatives to video in online learning

  School districts are being asked to loosen mandatory video requirements for online learning because of privacy and equity concerns.

• Using Pear Deck with a Co-Teacher – YouTube

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Key Features of Making Comics in Canva

  Last week Canva introduced new comic strip creation templates. There has long been tools for making comics in Canva, but now Canva is offering templates specifically for making comics. Canva’s comic gallery contains templates for making comics in a …

• Free Technology for Teachers: New Shapes and Fonts in Book Creator

  Book Creator is one of my favorite tools for creating ebooks. It’s a versatile tool that can be used to publish multimedia fiction and non-fiction stories. I’ve also recommended using it to have students create portfolios of their best work. Last we…

• What we talk about when we talk about games – Class Roots

  We carry around really idiosyncratic and sometimes competing notions of games. When we hear someone talking about games, some of us think about children’s games. Some of us think about board games. Some of us think about sports. Some of us think abo…

• Thank you, George Takei, for reminding us. The Bill of Rights should not be taken lightly. | History Tech

  Yesterday at the final keynote of the 2020 NCSS national conference, author and actor George Takei shared his experience growing up in what he called an American concentration camp.

• Investigation: Sticklebacks and Gene Regulation

  This investigation was modified from the HHMI Stickleback Modeling activity where students examine two different forms of the the stickleback fish. One form has spines and bony armor and is found in the ocean.

• Fire Up Your Students with a Campaign Project « Cult of Pedagogy

  I opened the envelope, unfolded the letter inside and began to read to my class: “Dear Residents of Alchemy Island, I am writing to inform you that a decision has been made to sell the east of our island to a large development company.

• diversifying-your-classroom-book-collections-avoid-these-7-pitfalls

  As protests against racial injustice spread to communities large and small in this year, many educators have been pushed to examine how systemic racism harms students.

• The Power of Student Check-Ins During Distant Learning and Hybrid Courses – John Spencer

  In my last article, I wrote about ways that we can get to know our students in virtual and hybrid courses. I also did a webinar on building a community online. You can watch it on replay here. One of the best ways to build relationships is through f…

• Brainstorming Voting Tool – Teacher Tech

  Brainstorming is an essential process to many projects. How do you decide on which brainstorm idea to go with? Some people don’t feel comfortable speaking up in opposition or some people feel compelled to go along with the crowd.

• What Teachers Have Learned About Online Classes During COVID-19 : NPR

  Deborah Rosenthal starts her virtual kindergarten class on Zoom every morning with a song — today, it’s the Spanish version of, “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Her students clap along.

• 10 Ways to Sabotage Your Classroom Management

  You know the basics: Establish clear rules and consequences, be consistent, keep students engaged. But even with all that in place, the small things you do could be wreaking havoc on your whole system.

• A Principal’s Reflections: Feedback is Needed More Than Ever

  I think we can all agree that this school year has been unlike any other and not for the best of reasons. The pandemic has upended the entire education system as schools have moved to remote, then hybrid, and back to remote in some cases with no end…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

More amazing blog posts from this week on current topics and needs:

• Free Technology for Teachers: Milanote Offers Nice Templates for Creating Multimedia Storyboards

  Milanote is a neat tool that I like to think of as being part storyboarding tool, part bookmarking tool, and part task management tool. For this post I’ll focus on the storyboarding aspect of Milanote. Milanote offers dozens of templates for making …

• Learning from Home – Teaching Matters

  Copyright Teaching Matters, Inc. Our subject-specific experts partner directly with teachers, teacher leaders and school leaders to develop deeper content knowledge and master instructional strategies that lead to better student outcomes.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Norms in the Online Classroom

  · 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…

• State Of California Releases School ReOpening Guidelines – It’s Going To Be A Hell Of A Fall | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The State of California just released school re-opening guidelines. Of course, the state is also cutting the education budget by 10-13%.

• Automatically Remove Background from Image – PhotoScissors

  PhotoScissors interactive cutout tool for foreground segmentation enables new smart ways of removing backgrounds from still images. Go to our Tutorials page and see for yourself how easy it is for anyone to do with just a few simple steps.

• Hornets, crabs and rodents: setting traps to locate and contain invasive species | Puget Sound Institute

  While media reports were raising alarms about an invasion of dangerous “murder hornets,” Washington state entomologists were quietly planning a trapping program, which will mark the beginning of a search-and-destroy mission against the Asian giant h…

• I Know Schools Are Facing A Budget Crisis, But It’s A Huge Mistake To Not Have Summer School For Our Most Vulnerable Students | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  As I’ve written earlier, I think most students are going to be fine despite missing the last two or so months of school (see I’M NOT CONVINCED THAT STUDENT LEARNING LOSSES THIS YEAR ARE TRAUMATIC, BUT THEY WILL BE BAD IF WE’RE ONLINE NEXT YEAR).

• If all we offer is uninspiring learning, we’re in trouble | @mcleod | Dangerously Irrelevant

  What about learning? Yes, that’s a reason too… for some. But engagement data show that many/most of our students are not coming to school because their learning is engaging.

• how-nyc-students-and-teachers-are-making-sense-of-george-floyds-killing

  Teachers are creating space for students to talk about protests, anti-Black racism and police violence. They’re also holding space for those who don’t understand Black Lives Matter.

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: 3 Tips for Getting Started With Game Design

  These videos were already shared in previous posts from my game design club series, but I wanted to get them in them one place. (I compiled some related interviews in this post.) My goal with these videos was to concisely state three tips that would…

• Getting Ready to Teach in K-12 Schools Next Year | Edutopia

  • their first foray into online learning raised issues about pacing, structure, and the lack of interactivity and rigor, and the sometimes confusing plethora of communication and instructional channels (Google Classroom, Zoom, YouTube, email, and various apps). Most found the largely asynchronous nature of learning a “lonely” experience.
  • Technology alone cannot make learning engaging, so in developing online systems, schools will need to map out their curricula, ensure articulation and complementarity between face-to-face and online learning, and intentionally design for both these environments, seeking a balance
  • “High touch” learning: involving more collaborative activities and synchronous interaction with teachers and classmates.
  • Greater interactivity: games, web-based simulations, and interactive videos—and fewer worksheets.
  • Personalized learning: a range of activities that address students’ skills, abilities, interests, and home situations—from choice boards to personalized learning pathways to individual projects.
  • More challenging activities: projects and activities that address real-world challenges and involve students creating versus simply consuming information.
  • • Direct instruction: transmitting information about concepts, skills, and procedures via demonstrations, lectures, screencasts, videos, or online presentations.
    • Cognitive models of learning: structured activities that don’t just put information in students’ heads but get knowledge out—inductive reasoning, open-ended questioning, experiments, metacognitive strategies, and problem-solving.
    • Social models of learning: collaborative instructional methods we can still use in online learning—jigsaw approaches, reciprocal teaching, discussions, debates, and peer tutoring
  • one of the most important things we can do is prepare our students to be successful online learners.
  • Personal characteristics related to successful online learning: motivation, time management, digital citizenship, persistence, self-regulation skills, and help seeking.
  • Parents and guardians who don’t speak English and those who lack digital skills, who cannot assist teachers with home instruction, or whose homes may not be conducive to learning online will need additional assistance.

• how-teachers-and-schools-can-help-when-bad-stuff-happens

  “I would recommend that they address issues from the beginning. Talk to the students about: You know, we’ve all been through a difficult experience. I know that some of you may have lost your home. Some of you been in a shelter and been in very unus…

• QuizWhizzer – Fun, gamified quiz races

• Interactive Worksheets | Wizer.me

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Anti-Racism Lessons & Videos

  Educators who want to engage with students about the death of George Floyd and racism in America, may find helpful these resources compiled by The New York City Department of Education.

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: How to Start Making Games – Advice from Game Designers – Spring 2020

  I already shared three of these four short videos in other posts, but I wanted to collect them in one. The past two months I ran a virtual game design club for middle school students and I interviewed two of my friends. (All posts in this series can…

• Sacramento County Office Of Education Releases Fall Re-Opening Guidelines, Apparently Without Talking To Unions? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The Sacramento County Office of Education today released their guidelines for re-opening schools in the fall. You can read about it at the Sacramento Bee article, Sports canceled. Students in masks. Sacramento health officials urge big changes for s…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: 30 Sites/Apps for Digital Storytelling

  Digital Storytelling is the process of telling a story through the use of digital means.  Also, it happens to be one the easiest ways to int…

• Music Synchronizes the Brains of Performers and Their Audience – Scientific American

  When a concert opens with a refrain from your favorite song, you are swept up in the music, happily tapping to the beat and swaying with the melody. All around you, people revel in the same familiar music.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Ways to Make Short Audio Recordings – No Accounts Required

  Since late last year when Google finally added native support for audio in Google Slides I’ve fielded a steady stream of questions from readers looking for suggestions on the quickest and easiest ways for kids to record audio on their Chromebooks.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two New Google Docs Features in G Suite for Education

  Back in February Google added Smart Compose and Autocorrect as new features in Google Docs. However, those features were only available in Google Docs in G Suite for Business accounts.

• Student Self-Assessment: Now More Than Ever | All Things Assessment

  When I wrote my last blog post in January, and made self-assessment my personal learning resolution, I did not know that in a few months my brain would be incredibly tired from learning way too many things in a short amount of time.

• Citizen science games: the ultimate list | Citizen Science Center

• Bad News

• Arcademic Skill Builders – Math Games, Language Arts Games, and much more

• Math Games for Kids | Kidopo | Page 2

• MemoMoti

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Collaborate on a YouTube Channel

  Like many other schools, this spring my school held our awards ceremonies virtually. A colleague and I managed the distribution of the recordings of those ceremonies. We did this by collaborating on one YouTube channel.

• The Best Video Creation Tools for Teachers and Students | Free Video Editing Software and Apps Ranked

  A good video creation tool is a must in every teacher’s toolbox. But what’s the best editor or program to use? This question has plagued me for a long time.

• Transcribe Audio to Text | Transcription Company & Website – Rev

  ServicesTranscription 99% accuracy, by human professionals $1.25 PER MINUTE Rough Draft 80% accuracy, machine generated transcript 25¢ PER MINUTE Captions English captions for videos $1.

• Very Good Interview: “What’s motivating nationwide protests?” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  GDJ / Pixabay This is a very good ABC News interview with Marc Lamont Hill:

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Ways to Edit Images in Google Slides

  A decade+ ago when I started using Google Slides it was a rather bare bones alternative to PowerPoint. That is no longer the case. Today, there are tons neat little features that you can use in Google Slides to improve the appearance of your present…

• New TED-Ed Video & Lesson: “When is a pandemic over?” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  MirceaIancu / Pixabay I’m adding this new TED-Ed lesson and video to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:

• Kids will need recess more than ever when returning to school post-coronavirus

  School leaders globally are tasked with the unenviable challenge of planning for school reopenings after COVID-19 pandemic shut downs.

• Yours for the making – Instructables

• ‘You get engagement from everyone’: Mott Haven teacher incorporates baseball in science curriculum – Bronx Times

• ‘Teaching for Black Lives’ — a handbook for educators to fight racism – The Washington Post

  On July 10, 2018, I wrote about a book that had just been published titled “Teaching for Black Lives,” a collection of writings that helps educators humanize blacks in curriculum, teaching and policy and connect lessons to young people’s lives.

• What if we liberated the learning from report cards – What Ed Said

  Every time we’ve thought about how we might improve our reports, we’ve failed. The barriers to major change have somehow seemed insurmountable.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Creating Breakout Rooms with Google Meet

  It’s easy to create breakout rooms using Google Meet. Start by creating a hyperdoc agenda that lists each topic and with that topic provide a link to the breakout room agenda. It’s also a good idea to have a main room / lounge where participants can…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Another batch of amazing blog posts from this past week:

• Free Technology for Teachers: AudioMass – A Free, Registration-free Audio Editor

  AudioMass is a new online audio editing tool that I recently learned about on Product Hunt. AudioMass doesn’t require any registration in order to use it. In fact, there isn’t even an option to register.

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: Game Design Tip and Activities – Game Design Club 2020

  This week I posted my final game design tip to the club and I posted a couple game design activities. The tip as shown in the video lends itself toward board and card games, though I have read the same advice given to designers of digital games.

• ‘Days on the Hill’ will go online this year, widening audience for Puget Sound talks | Puget Sound Institute

  Folks who care about salmon, killer whales and the Puget Sound ecosystem will get a chance to participate in the annual discussion known as Puget Sound Day on the Hill. But this year the event will be called “2020 Virtual Puget Sound Days on the Hil…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create Whiteboard Videos With Zoom

  One of the things that I often mention in my webinars and workshops is the idea of getting to know an instructional technology tool well so that you can use it in many ways. A good example of that is found when dive into all of the ways that you can…

• 10 Key Education Recommendations for Reopening the K-12 Classroom

  Homeroom has taken on a literal meaning over the past two months. Parents, while always their children’s first and foremost educators, have had to fully embrace homeschooling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Learning Through Video Games Doesn’t Have To Be Dull : NPR

  When I was in high school, the best way I could describe myself was as a parent’s worst nightmare: I didn’t care about my education, didn’t do homework, and was known to sleep in class. My SAT score was so bad that I still don’t know how I did! My v…

• Technology In Education – e-Learning Infographics

  Educational technology comes in many forms including websites, apps, and online courses, and is effective when used both inside the classroom alongside other teaching methods and at home for self-study.

• The Best Books for Middle School According to My Students 2020 – Pernille Ripp

  I didn’t want to let a global pandemic stand in the way of gathering the titles of the amazing books my 7th graders loved this year. This is the fifth year that my students have gathered what they deem the very best books that they read this year an…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Screencastify Settings You Should Know How to Use

  Screencastify is an excellent tool for creating instructional videos on your Chromebook, Mac, or Windows computer.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create Whiteboard Videos in Seesaw

  Seesaw is my go-to tool for making digital portfolios. I like it because it’s a versatile platform that can be used for more than just portfolio creation.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: HeadUP

  HeadUp is a excellent new site for digital storytelling that I just found out about. Once a user signs up they can create dynamic looking stories that contains, images, videos, links, and more.

• How to Quickly Create, Send, & Translate a Parent Newsletter – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” – Jane D. Hull A few weeks ago I sent my first parent newsletter to 400+ parents.

• 5 Resources to Find Tons of Free Fun Unplugged Coding Activities! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “Falling in love with code means falling in love with problem solving and being a part of a forever ongoing conversation.” – Kathryn Barrett In a previous post I described why all students should participate in the upcoming Hour of Code event, which…

• 8 Top Tips and Tons of Resources for Supporting English Learners with Technology – Teacher Reboot Camp

  I’ve worked with language learners in over 20 countries. I’ve seen first hand how technology can be used in incredible ways to motivate and engage language learners of any age.

• 7 great reads that are gonna make my brain bigger | History Tech

  Most of you already know about the History Tech summer reading program. If you just starting hanging around, a quick recap. For years, I’ve been making a list of books that I plan to read between the end of school in May and back to school in August.

• 12 Awesome Ideas for Ending the School Year – Teacher Reboot Camp

  The end of the school year is approaching fast! Before the year ends I aim to get students to review, reflect, and connect. Some of your students are probably super excited to begin their summers or might be restless from testing.

• How Do Teachers and Schools Develop Young Innovators? – Teacher Reboot Camp

  On Tuesday I was honored to deliver the afternoon keynote for the #KYGoDigital Summer Tour Conference, The Keys to Fostering a Culture of Innovation! Students Who S.A.I.L.

• 10+ QR Code Activities to Inspire Curiosity and Engage Learners – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Recently I presented a webinar for Simple K12, 10+ QR Code Activities to Inspire Curiosity and Active Learning. Below are the slides with example activities and resources.

• Go On Incredibly Fun Learning Adventures With These 10+ Amazing Green Screen Ideas! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  A green screen in the classroom helps spark student creativity and imagination for any subject! Last year I tried a very basic and cheap green screen with my 2nd to 5th graders.

• 7 Recommended Hands-On STEM Learning Products – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “Learning is not a spectator sport.” – Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann (1996) On this blog I’ve shared thousands of web tools, apps, and resources that are free or offer a freemium option for teachers.

• 10+ Plugged and Unplugged Coding Activities for Hour of Code! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  December 9 to 15th is the annual Hour of Code event. Coding is such an important skill that enables students to learn writing and math along with any other subject matter. Coding also inspires students to invent and innovate. Students also learn how…

• Tools, Apps, and Resources to Create and Send Meaningful Greetings – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Tis’ the season for students to express gratitude and care for others by creating and sending greetings. Students can craft messages for their peers, family members, teachers, and school staff. Students can also participate in digital greeting excha…

• Tips and Tools to Support Students in Publishing Their Own Digital Storybooks – Teacher Reboot Camp

  I still remember the storybooks I created when I was younger. They were made by stapling or gluing construction paper over notebook paper and illustrating the pages with crayons and marker.

• Student Goal-Setting with Digital Vision Boards – Teacher Reboot Camp

  A new year is around the corner, which is a great time to encourage students to create a vision board where they visualize their personal, academic and professional goals.

• Express Learning with Animated Character Videos! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  A fun way and safe way for students to share their knowledge is through animated character videos. The web tools below will get your students started with creating these videos. Students will be able to choose characters and in some cases create the…

• Lifelong Learning with Social Bookmarking Tools and Apps – Teacher Reboot Camp

  One way to inspire students to be lifelong learners is to teach them how to collect, categorize, curate, and tag resources with a social bookmarking tool or app. I have listed some of my favorites for students and teachers below. Social bookmarking …

• Comic Creation Tools to Engage Learners – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Students of all ages enjoy learning with comics and creating comics. When students create comics they use props, scenery, dialogue, text, and characters to visualize and contextualize vocabulary and knowledge.

• Formative Assessment Tools and Apps – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Ongoing assessment is necessary for student success. These assessments provide data on our learners’ progress and knowledge of the content.

• Recommended Hashtags to Discover Top Edtech Tools and Apps – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Many people ask me how I keep up with the latest technology trends and find so many free resources to share on Twitter (@ShellTerrell) and on this blog.

• The Thinking and Creativity That Goes Into Game Design – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Students can design a game in any subject to assess their peers. When students design games they use a lot of creativity and critical thinking skills. Students must imagine and design worlds, characters, levels, sound effects, game elements, and mor…

• Motivate Students with Digital Badges – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Motivate students with digital badges. The Mac Arthur Foundation defines a digital badge as “an assessment and credentialing mechanism that is housed and managed online. Badges are designed to make visible and validate learning in both formal and in…

• Document Learning in a Digital Portfolio – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Digital portfolios are powerful learning tools for students of all ages. A digital portfolio allows students to upload and keep a record of work over time and share this work with family members and school staff regularly.

• Missions and Goals to Inspire Teachers and Students! #EveryChildEveryDay Chat Resources – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Today I was the guest author for the Foundations, Inc. (@Foundations_Inc) #EveryChildEveryDay Twitter chat. We shared ways to inspire teachers and students to set and achieve goals and missions. I believe growth in steps is the key to personal, spir…

• Video Project Ideas, Resources, and Tools – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Students of all ages enjoy producing their own videos. Each year I meet younger and younger learners who have their own YouTube Channels. Not surprisingly, Forbes reported that the highest paid YouTube star of 2018 was 7 year-old Ryan of the Ryan To…

• Help Students Soar! Social and Emotional Learning Resources – Teacher Reboot Camp

  We want to inspire our students to transform the world with their ideas, creativity, and knowledge. Innovation is a difficult journey. The greatest inventions that transformed the world took thousands of attempts and years of frustration and problem…

• Find the Right Tools for Student Projects – Teacher Reboot Camp

  The majority of our students use technology daily to learn and share their voice, creativity, ideas, and passion with the world! When we integrate technology effectively into the curriculum students discover how to use technology to problem solve, c…

• Digital Learning Theories and Frameworks For Future Ready Classrooms – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Technology impacts every aspect of our students’ lives and will continue to play an important role in their lives. Teachers who integrate technology effectively help their students realize the potential we have to transform the world with our use of…

• Ways to Learn with Technology – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Technology surrounds our students and gives them a platform to share with a global audience. Technology is how our students learn, communicate, entertain themselves, collaborate, and seek advice.

• Inspiring Ideas and Resources from the #STEM4INNOVATION Conference – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “People can’t only design with their heads. They have to do it with their hands, too.” – Dr. Karan Watson, STEM 4 Innovation Keynote Speaker Recently, I attended the incredible STEM 4 Innovation Conference at Texas A&M University.

• How to Inspire the Next World Changers – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.

• Paper vs. Screens by Christine McDonnell, CEO at Codelicious – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Traditional coding activities dictate that students sit in front of laptops or tablets, working to develop a program or a game. This approach, however, does not resonate with all types of students and learners. Luckily, there are many different ways…

• How Do We Encourage More Young Women to Innovate and Transform the World – Teacher Reboot Camp

  I am the mother of a 3 year-old girl. Each day I think of ways to help her develop into an intelligent, independent, unapologetic, brave, creative, compassionate, and resilient human being.

• How to Quickly Translate Your Live Session in Multiple Languages and Other Google Meet Must-Haves! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  If you are using Google Meet for connecting with students then the links below will help you make this a more accessible and engaging experience. Please note that some of these tips and tricks work for GSuite Edu accounts.

• Design Amazing Online Learning Experiences Quickly with These Choice Menu Templates – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Design is especially important in online learning and one key to student motivation and engagement. Designing an engaging online experience doesn’t have to take a lot of time.

• Make a Deeper Connection with Virtual Student Check-ins! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Connection is a key factor to student success in an online environment. Do your students feel connected to you, the instructor, the learning material, and their peers? Connection in a physical classroom is facilitated by real-time face-to-face inter…

• Teacher Zen During Distance Learning – Teacher Reboot Camp

  Distance learning has transformed the routines and lives of all stakeholders- students, families, and educators. How do we reduce the stress and find some peace and balance? I recently presented for the Minnesota Distance Learning Summit, Teacher Ze…

• Remove Background from Image – remove.bg

  Remove Image Background 100% Automatically and Free No image? Try one of these: or try one of these By uploading an image or URL you agree to our Terms of Service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Servic…

• Teach with Magic – Time Warp Games

  Time Warps are point and click adventure games where students make choices leading to branching paths. They require lots of reading but students can’t get enough!

• Learning Might be Overrated – Ideas and Thoughts

  The past 6 weeks have initiated a great deal of conversation about learning, schools and education. If we were to dive in, those three things are somewhat separate and unique. Learning is generally agreed upon as the seminal idea.

• Ways To Use Pokemon Go In The Classroom | Teaching Ideas

• How Washington school districts are succeeding and struggling since coronavirus shut them down | The Seattle Times

• Final Course Evaluation with Google Forms – Mari Venturino

  One thing I really love about my classroom is that feedback is a two-way street. I try to collect formal and informal feedback from my students as often as I give them feedback. Informal feedback may be an exit ticket question or walking around and …

• The 12 Indicators: #1 – Empower Students to Pursue Their Passions

• Schools Are Opening Worldwide, Providing a Model for the U.S. | Edutopia

• Fit You Seek. Run You Must. 5K/10K Virtual Challenge.

  Celebrate with fans around the galaxy, by accepting the Fit You Seek. Run You Must.

• Bigfoot…The Social Distancing Champion’s Running Challenge

  We all know that Bigfoot is the social distancing champion. Accept his virtual challenge and get awesome commemorative gear mailed to your door. Your participation will help support our US food bank partners and your sanity. Here is how it works… …

• Deepfakes Are Going To Wreak Havoc On Society. We Are Not Prepared.

  Last month during ESPN’s hit documentary series The Last Dance, State Farm debuted a TV commercial that has become one of the most widely discussed ads in recent memory. It appeared to show footage from 1998 of an ESPN analyst making shockingly accu…

• breakout-edu-lost-in-time

  Download the Minecraft world attached to this lesson. After logging in to the game, do the following 4. The world will show up in your list in Minecraft Education Edition – Click on it to launch the world.

• blood-cycle-escape-room-2

  Print Lesson Rework Lesson Guiding Ideas • Students will be working in groups of five. • The task is to get out of the escape room. Student Activities • The only way to open the door is to place blocks in the right order – as the blood cycle.

• escape-the-pyramid

  The students can play in groups of three-four members in the same world or individually. Inside the world there is no written instructions. As a teacher you can place a NPC or a board to introduce the adventure to the students.

• New Video: “What Other Countries Can Teach U.S. Schools About Reopening” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  NickyPe / Pixabay Here’s a new Newsy video I’m adding to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL:

• End of the Year Exit Ticket: Evaluating Online Learning |

  As the year comes to a close, I encourage teachers to take a moment and collect feedback from students about their experiences learning online in the last few months. We do not know what fall 2020 will look like–in person, online, or a combination o…

• 10 easy ways to clean up your Google Classroom – Ditch That Textbook

  Consider creating some folders outside of the classroom folder to move some files over that you want to keep and find easily. However, don’t get “delete happy” and be sure to follow #4 before you begin moving and reorganizing your Google Drive.

• My Five Tech Tools with the Capacity to Make a Huge Difference

• Privacy Considerations Checklist – EdTech Guidance

• Escape Room Puzzle Ideas for the Science Classroom | Kesler Science

• Free Technology for Teachers: Five Resources for Teaching and Learning About Copyright

  In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week newsletter I shared a short guide to finding and using media for use in classroom projects like videos, slideshows, and podcasts.

• Great Books of 2020…So Far – Pernille Ripp

  It continues to amaze me how many fantastic books are accessible to us as readers. 2020 started off strong and continued to amaze as more books made their way into my hands.

• Amid #Covid: Gift to her peers from a formerly depressed teen author – NetFamilyNews.org

  I can’t let Mental Health Month go by without a blog post on the subject, especially this year. So this one’s not about tech, media or the Internet. It’s about – and by – 19-year-old Ruby Walker, author of Advice I Ignored: Stories and Wisdom from a…

• What is Unschooling?

• A Quick Introduction to Homeschooling

• Geek Links: Young Inventor Challenge – GeekDad

  Geek Links are cool stories that we’ve found elsewhere on the internet that we think our readers will love too.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Timestamp Your YouTube Videos

  When you’re publishing videos that are longer than five or six minutes on your YouTube channel it can be helpful to viewers to add some timestamps to the video’s description. Including timestamps in the description lets your viewers click to jump to…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Updated – How to Use EDpuzzle to Create Video Lessons

  In my previous post I wrote about and included a video about adding timestamps to longer videos that you post on your YouTube channel. Rather than just talk about it, I took my own advice and added timestamps to one of my longest and most popular vi…

• Reopening School: What It Might Look Like | Cult of Pedagogy

  I don’t need to give you much background here: As you all know, schools have been closed worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the same way that cities are at various stages of reopening businesses, schools are doing the same thing,…

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: What is the streamflow outlook for this summer?

  Announcement: I will be doing a short weather forecast followed by live answers to your questions on Tuesday and Friday at noon using Facebook Live.

• The Next Ten Days Are Big Ones For The Possibility Of Re-Opening Schools In The Fall | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  This week is a big one when it comes to the possible re-opening of schools in the fall. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Office of Education will unveil its “framework” for school re-opening.

• Your food choices affect Earth’s climate | Science News for Students

• What are the benefits of distance learning?

  The rise of technology in today’s schools has brought new opportunities for both teaching and learning. Most modern classrooms have long had access to computer labs that have allowed students to learn essential digital literacy skills in preparation…

• A Principal’s Reflections: Work Smarter, Not Harder

  I have a secret to share. In my humble opinion, I am not very smart. While others might disagree, such as my mom, I pride myself on being extremely resourceful. However, this was not always my strength.

• SlidesMania | Free Google Slides themes and PowerPoint templates.

  Free PowerPoint Templates and Google Slides Themes This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue surfing, we will assume you are ok with it. You can read more here.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great blog posts from last week:

• Count Up Checkboxes in Google Sheets – Teacher Tech

  My favorite part of Google Sheets is inserting checkboxes! WICKED USEFUL FOR TEACHERS! My daughter is helping me with my YouTube thumbnails (check out her handiwork and subscribe to my channel

• Control Alt Achieve: How Your Students can use Google Drawings to Create Greeting Cards

  Google Apps has loads of awesome tools, but one thing that often gets mentioned as missing is a desktop publishing app. If you want to create brochures, newsletters, flyers, greeting cards, and such, there really isn’t a dedicated desktop publishing…

• Roll Up Whiteboard with Marker | Whitey Board Company – Writeyboard

  repositionable whiteboard + marker

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Search for Matching & Similar Documents Submitted in Google Classroom

  Earlier this week a reader asked me if there was a way to quickly scan across all of the documents his students submit in Google Classroom to check for elements of copying between students.

• How To Make Your Online Lessons Irresistible To Students – Smart Classroom Management

  Although the school year is quickly coming to a close, chances are that Zoom and other live video platforms will continue to play a role next school year. This isn’t good news.

• THE CIRCLE

  ORDER OF RANKS

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: What is the difference between partly sunny and partly cloudy?

  Twice today I was asked about the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny. And that inquiry is one of the most frequent I get, for reasons I do not understand. OK…let’s settle this for once and for all.

• Google Arts and Culture needs to be in your teacher tool belt | History Tech

  I’ve seen it so many times. And you probably do it every day, without even realizing it.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Foster Connection and Interaction in Webinars

  Some new to conducting online webinars may feel a void in this environment. Unlike teaching face-to-face you can’t read the room the same way. It may be difficult to pick up on non-verbal cues. You can’t walk over to someone and look over their shou…

• The #1 Most Requested Desmos Feature Right Now, and What We Could Do Instead – dy/dan

  When schools started closing months ago, we heard two loud requests from teachers in our community. They wanted: Those sounded like unambiguously good ideas, whether schools were closed or not. Good pedagogy. Good technology. Good math. We made both.

• Live from NCCE Archive: “Google Tour Creator: Embed VR Into YOUR Lessons!” – NCCE’s Tech Savvy Teacher Blog

  Thanks to all that attended Live from NCCE on Thursday, May 14, 2020, on “Google Tour Creator: Embed VR Into YOUR Lessons!” with special guest Paul Zimmerman! Below is an archive of that live event.

• Earth’s Ever-Changing Surface | Lesson Plan | PBS LearningMedia

• Activities to keep preschoolers learning during a pandemic – CNN

  Three weeks into our extended coronavirus spring break at home, my husband wanted to discuss what we should be teaching our 4-year-old son. Masada Siegel is journalist and a crisis communications consultant.

• Home | The Ron Clark Academy

• MTG Cardsmith: A Magic: The Gathering Custom Card Maker

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Quickly Create a Slideshow With Google Photos and Slides

  Earlier this week someone sent me a question on Twitter seeking information about an add-on that lets you import batches of photos into Google Slides and have those photos automatically placed onto individual slides. The add-on that I’ve used for th…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Tactiq – Record the Captions in Google Meet

  Tactiq is a new Google Chrome extension that lets you record the captions generated by the automatic captioning tool in Google Meet. You can use it to record and save all captions or select just some captions to save.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Pixabay Offers Free Music to Use and Reuse

  Pixabay is one of the resources that I frequently include in my recommendations for sources of images and video clips to use in slideshow and video projects. This morning I got a notice from Pixabay informing me of Pixabay’s audio collection.

• literacyworldwide.org

• Creating a BITMOJI Class Photo by Greers Fantastic Fourth | TpT

  I created this fun class picture when I heard we wouldn’t be coming together as a class anymore. I asked all parents to create and send me their students BITMOJI and then created this class picture.

• Kids Are So Over Zoom. Here’s What To Do About It. | HuffPost Life

  In the past month, my 5-year-old has gone from being excited about video calls for school and virtual “play dates” to basically hating it all. Sometimes he’s into it — like yesterday, when he was totally engrossed in a 30-minute math class with his …

• Free Technology for Teachers: Move Items from One Google Account to Another

  It’s that time of year again when some teachers will be leaving one school district for another. With that move comes the need to move your digital resources as well as your physical resources.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Certify’em Adds Two Helpful Features for Sending Certificates When Students Complete Google Forms Quizzes

  Certify’em is a Google Forms add-on that I’ve been using and recommending for a few years. Certify’em makes it easy to automatically send certificates to students when they get a minimum score on a quiz conducted with Google Forms.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Virtual Bitmoji Classroom Help

  Have you created your Bitmoji classroom yet? If you have not and you want to, then you’re in the right place. Here you’ll find an article and two videos that outline the process. I’ll also share how you can check out Bitmoji classrooms on social med…

• Awesome teacher summer: PD bingo choice board – Ditch That Textbook

  Summer is a great time to learn what YOU want to learn. This PD bingo choice board gives you LOTS of options! ​Summer is a time for rejuvenation and relaxation. It’s a time to focus on our lives outside of education and recharge.

• Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch: Differentiation strategies to support learners

  This article originally appeared in the Discovery Education blog “Kathy Schrock’s Katch of the Month” in May 2018 and is re-posted here with permission. _______________________ Differentiation of instruction for all students in your classroom is som…

• Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch: Creating with Discovery Education

  For the past few years, I have focused my energies on supporting teachers who are creating assessments, both formative and summative, which target student’s higher order thinking skills.

• Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch: Thinking processes and STEM

  The hundreds of quality STEM-related videos and materials in the Discovery Education online collection make it easy to find content to use for your lessons and units. However, take time for students to develop a solid thinking process before startin…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Litehouse

  Litehouse is an innovative new site for creating stunningly beautiful digital stories. Litehouse incorporates a easy-to-use story editor that lets users add: text, audio, images, maps, are more to create a dynamic story.

• At age 6, he and his classmates fled Mount St. Helens. 40 years later this reporter recalls that day | NW News Network

• Naraview

  Naraview

• Free Technology for Teachers: Naraview – A Good Way to Challenge Students to Make Connections Between Topics

  In last week’s episode of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff Rushton shared a neat site called Naraview. Those who stayed on for the “overtime” of the webinar got a detailed overview of the service from one of its designers.

• Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: 5 End of the Year #RemoteLearning Celebration Ideas

  This school year has been anything but normal. Many educators have settled into a grove of creating the best learning experiences they can for their students while still providing some meaning during distance learning.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Circly

  *Circly’s collaboration features make it an ideal tool for “remote learning” while schools are closed down due to the virus. Students can even use it to do group projects from home.

• End of the Year Project: What Are YOU Curious About? |

  The last couple of months have been exhausting on a lot of levels as teachers and students shift to online learning. I would venture to guess that everyone is ready for a much-deserved summer break.

• Seven Teacher-Tested Ways to Find Renewal During Distance Learning – John Spencer

  Last week, I created the following goofy video as a reminder about the differences between teaching in-person and teaching from home: While this video is a little goofy, it points to a reality that teaching from home is vastly different from teachin…

• 40 years later, Mt. St. Helens looms as a marvel and threat – Los Angeles Times

  By Seattle Bureau Chief TOUTLE, Wash. — On the morning of May 18, 1980, an earthquake shook Mt. St. Helens and the mountain’s north face collapsed in one of the largest debris avalanches ever recorded.

• Ask an Astronomer — on Video

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Convert a PDF Into a Google Document

  On Friday during Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff someone asked if there is a tool that I would recommend for converting a PDF into a Google Doc. Fortunately, you can do that without having to use any third-party tools.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Which Video Conferencing Platform is Right for Your School?

  · 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…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use Kahoot in Google Classroom

  This is the time of year when many of us are looking for fun ways to conduct end-of-year review sessions with our students. Playing Kahoot quiz games is one of the most popular means of doing that.

• A Principal’s Reflections: 8 Key Focus Areas for Developing a Re-Entry Plan

  The COVID19 pandemic has radically disrupted both society and education as we know it. The chances of many things going back to the way they were are slim. I can say with confidence that a mentality of TTWWADI (that’s the way we’ve always done it) w…

• What if students had a choice in their daily class schedule? – Practice What You Teach

  Typically, in May, as the current school year winds down, I start to make plans for the following year.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some amazing blog posts from last week:

• Use the SAME Google Form to Poll – Teacher Tech

  During a live session with students there are several options for how you poll students. A quick and dirty is to reuse the same Google Form repeatedly. After submitting the Form there is a link that says “Submit another response.

• Edutopia

  This flexibility to make their own hours is also giving students a chance to exercise, take breaks, or even be bored, all of which research shows is beneficial.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: An Innovative Vision for the Future of Schools

  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidance on reopening of schools will require innovative thinking to re-imagine how schools may open in the upcoming school year and beyond. The key will be agility and flexibility. That’s because we’ve learned t…

• How To Increase Student Online Participation By 50 Percent – Smart Classroom Management

  It’s been a tough go, this online learning. Many students are checked out.

• 118 Best Digital Tools for Educators images in 2020 | Educational technology, Education, Media literacy

• Game-Based Learning Design Competition – Legends of Learning

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Share Audio and Video in Google Classroom Without YouTube or SoundCloud

  Earlier this week I had a reader ask me for advice on sharing videos in Google Classroom with her students without having to use YouTube. My suggestion was to simply upload the videos to Google Classroom as either announcements or as assignments.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Ways to Use Wakelet

  One of the reasons that Wakelet has become popular in schools in the last couple of years is that it can be used for a wide range of activities. It’s also popular because it can be used in a wide range of grade levels and subject areas.

• Snowman Army as Live Streamed on MakeCode Mixer channel | We Code MakeCode

  This video was live streamed on Wednesday, April 29, 2020 on MakeCode’s Mixer channel https://ift.tt/3cCJbFl. We will live stream a MakeCode show every Wednesday at noon Pacific for the next several Wednesdays. Our shows include MakeCode for Minecra…

• https://equitymaps.com

• Webjets.io – The new way to collect, organize and share anything

• PALMS Backchannel Chat | The new alternative to Todaysmeet

• 2 new papers spell a turning point for digital safety & citizenship: Part 2 – NetFamilyNews.org

  The timing struck me. Though it seems all of life is at an inflection point now, in the middle of a pandemic, two new papers that represent a pivotal moment for digital safety and citizenship education are published almost at the same time.

• How to Make a Movie – Learn about film

• How To Make A Slideshow Video With Photos And Music – The Edublogger

  Slideshow style videos can be a powerful way to bring together the best of your school experiences and share with others. Millions of school and college students will be graduating in the coming months. Given the current pandemic, many graduation ce…

• How You Can Use E-Sports and Gaming to Engage Students in Campus Life | Presence

• How Esports Can Support Equity • Teched Up Teacher

• Five Quick Distance Learning Activities For Teachers In A Pinch • Teched Up Teacher

• How Do I Learn Best – Setting Students Up For Learning Success Beyond Our Classroom – Pernille Ripp

  I never planned on teaching through a global pandemic. I doubt anyone did.

• How Esports Can Support Equity • Teched Up Teacher

  This was an article I originally wrote for Tech & Learning magazine. They’re a great resource for teachers looking to keep up on the latest edtech and ideas. Check them out!

• Free Technology for Teachers: An Important Setting for Using Audio and Video in Google Slides

  Last fall Google finally added an option to insert audio files into Google Slides without the need for any third-party add-ons. While it wasn’t as good as some people hoped it would be, it was still great news for Google Slides users. There are some…

• Video: “What the 1918 flu pandemic can teach us” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  rottonara / Pixabay I’m adding this video to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:

• The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add Background Music to Screencastify Videos

  Last week I published an article about how to extract the audio from your videos. A related question that I got from a reader was about how to add background music to Screencastify videos.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Geometry of Castles – A Math Lesson in Google Earth

  In the web browser version of Google Earth there is a section called Voyager. Within the Voyager section you’ll find lots of pre-made tours, quizzes, and activities. One of those activities is called The Geometry of Castles.

• 30+ FREE PowerPoint education templates + how to make them

  Templates are productivity boosters. They can help us get more done in less time. They’re also great lesson design frameworks. They help us craft a path for students to take their thinking — or for them to guide their creating.

• The Building Blocks of an Online Lesson |

  Even though teaching online may feel like a different animal than teaching face-to-face, there are many similarities in terms of the building blocks of a lesson. The tools teachers use to engage students online are indeed different.

• Super Basic: Create a Minecraft Lesson – Teacher Tech

  Engagement matters for making a lesson memorable. While nothing is engaging for 100% of students, we do know that Minecraft is very engaging for many students. Heck, I personally spend hours playing Minecraft and lose all track of time.

• Learning at Home with Minecraft

• why-grading-policies-for-equity-matter-more-than-ever

  Every other day, a McKinney-Vento program coordinator with San Leandro Unified School District travels to the marina on the district’s eastern boundary. There, she drops off meals, hygiene kits and school supplies to families who are sheltering in t…

• “Science Instruction in the Age of the Coronavirus” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Science Instruction in the Age of the Coronavirus is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Four science educators share their experiences adapting to online instruction, including through collaborative learning and the use of onli…

• Vocabulary Connections with Padlet – Technology Pursuit

  When learning new vocabulary, it’s important for students to link that vocabulary to something that they already know. That’s why the ubiquitous Frayer Model includes a square for students to provide or draw examples.

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: Game Designer Interview and Original Digital Games Activity

  This is part of a series of posts about the Game Design Club I am running for middle schoolers while school is closed.

• Flash Feedback: How to Provide More Meaningful Feedback in Less Time | 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. My study of feedback began in earnest on a sunny afternoon during my third year of…

• Accountability to What’s Important in Education – George Couros

  In this post, I was able to share some thoughts on a tweet by Weston Kieschnickin the post below.  You can also check the expanded ideas on my podcast, as well as YouTube. Later this week, I will post a conversation I had with Weston on this topic a…

• Just how contagious is COVID-19? This chart puts it in perspective. | Popular Science

  Demystifying the epidemiology terms that help us understand new diseases like COVID-19.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

You have got to see the great blog posts shared here:

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Tools for Collecting Stories from Students and Parents

  Earlier this week I hosted a webinar about using online tools to build communities. One of the topics within that webinar was collecting and publishing stories from students and their parents. To that end, there were three tools that I recommended. …

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Restore Files in Google Drive

  Twice this afternoon I had people ask me about restoring files that were deleted from either Google Classroom or from Google Drive. If you’ve accidentally deleted a file or folder in your Google Drive, there is a good chance that you can get it back.

• Alliance for Climate Education on Instagram: “Meet Anisa, an ACE Fellow and climate organizer with @earth_uprising in Tampa, Florida. Anisa believes talking about #climatechange with…”

• Minecraft COVID-19 Design Challenges – NASEF | High School Esports Clubs

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Videos

  Many of us are making more videos than ever before as a way to deliver instruction and or to simply keep our students updated about school. With time and practice you might become adept at using the editing functions in your favorite video software.

• Fortnite Lessons: V-Bucks and Weaponized Social Fun – Classroom Powerups

  My wife and I finally broke down allowed my sons to download and play Fortnite. The major reason for this was that online gaming seemed to be a great way for our two older boys (10 and 7) to play with their friends. Boy has this been true.

• Differentiation for Parents | Stories From School

  I remember the days when class was still held in a building, and my biggest concern was figuring out how to differentiate my math lesson to meet the needs of my students.  However, in our new reality of distance learning, I am learning to differenti…

• Software Library: MS-DOS Games : Free Software : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive

• Kerbal Space Program – Create and Manage Your Own Space Program

• World Climate Simulation – Climate Interactive

• Educators | Quandary

• Free Resources for COVID-19 Remote Learning Support – TeacherVision

  We’re writing to you knowing that all of our communities and schools are being impacted, one way or the other, by COVID-19. This is an unprecedented challenge with more questions than answers.

• PBL for Remote Learning Overview | PBLWorks

  How can we provide students with the safety net that school offers, while also using this opportunity to change the way we think about school?  We’re exploring the possibilities.

• Google Classroom Rubric Click the Title – Teacher Tech

  I want LESS mouse clicks and LESS mouse dragging. I was feeling really annoyed that to read the rubric description I made for a category I had to click all the way over to the right. But there is a shortcut! Under the rubric the category titles are …

• Screen time use sparks discussion over how much is too much

  Students love their screen time, especially those who have a passion for video games. Days can quickly blur into nights and vice-versa when children or teens get wrapped up in a Minecraft build, try to destroy a League of Legends nexus, or just repl…

• Google Classroom: Make Your OWN Grades – Teacher Tech

  Which Gradebook Defines Your Classroom? I have been loathing this update since the first day that Google Classroom came out. The gradebook. Now it is here and it is available to everyone and it is terrible.

• Control Alt Achieve: Annotate PDF’s Together in Google Meet with Kami

  When in a Google Meet video conference with a student, a colleague, or any other participant, sometimes you may need to work on a PDF together.

• Video: How to Run Properly — The Adventure Blog

  If you’re looking to improve your fitness and add exercise to your routine, taking up running is one of the best options. It is easy to get started, it burns a lot of a calories, and it is great for the heart and lungs.

• The Balance: Distance Learning–Mini-episode #2 |

  The Balance is now available on Spotify! It has been six weeks since California ordered residents to shelter in place. I have not left my home for anything other than the occasional trip to the grocery store.

• How To Reopen Closed Schools Amid Coronavirus : NPR

  Three-quarters of U.S. states have now officially closed their schools for the rest of the academic year. While remote learning continues, summer is a question mark, and attention is already starting to turn to next fall.

• The Importance and Impact of Greetings in Virtual Hallways – George Couros

  The statement above from the Edutopia video on “Making Connections with Greetings at the Door” is one that truly resonated. How powerful is that statement?

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create a Green Screen Video Without a Green Screen

  If you have ever wanted to make a green video but didn’t have access to iMovie and couldn’t make the investment in other video editing software, this new video is for you. In the following video I demonstrate how you can use Zoom and Adobe Spark tog…

• Free Technology for Teachers: National Parks Games and Challenges – Try Virtual National Parks Bingo

  I love the National Parks service that we have here in the U.S. One of the things I’m looking forward to doing with my kids when they’re a little older is to help them explore some of the places in National Parks and National Forests that I’ve enjoy…

• Free Technology for Teachers: USGS Find a Feature Challenges – Outdoor Learning Opportunities

  Last week I wrote about the Learning from Home resources available from the USGS. While it’s not specifically a part of the Learning from Home resources, USGS offers another selection of activities that can be used for “at home” learning. Those acti…

• Four New Online Learning Games | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The Webby Awards just announced their nominees for this year. Passport To Mars is from Scholastic, and puts you in the position of being an astronaut traveling to….Mars.

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: How to be a game designer – Tip #1

  I recently wrote about the virtual game design club I’m running for students in grades 5 – 8. I’ll regularly post my resources so you can do the same or a similar program with your students. This week I posted the following video to teach them a goo…

• Empowering Students in Distance Learning Environments – John Spencer

  Student engagement can be a real challenge in this sudden shift toward distance learning. But one way to improve engagement is by empowering students. In this article, we explore how to improve equity and access and how to shift toward student owner…

• Add Audio Recordings to your Slides

• Political Studies through Minecraft – Christy’s Houseful of Chaos

  I have reopened my Minecraft server in light of the Covid-19 restrictions and the need to have extra online social activities for children. I host events a couple of times a week on Minecraft and Zoom, and the children play on the server whenever th…

• COVID19 Learn at Home: Content Creation Tools – YouTube

• A list of online activities and resources for teachers planning remote learning for their students

• Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Is Atmospheric CO2 Declining from the Covid Economic Collapse?

  I have had a number of people ask me: with CO2 emissions collapsing from the economic downturn, are CO2 levels no longer going up or declining? In fact, a brief search on the web reveals some headlines that seem to be suggesting this: The bottom lin…

• How to make the classic Canada’s Wonderland funnel cake at home – Canada’s Wonderland

  I bet everyone’s having some really serious cravings right about now. The aisles at the grocery store for chips, candy, ice cream and cookies never saw it so good. I’ll tell you though, it’s the things I can’t get that I’m craving the most. Like a C…

• Microns and Masks – Yummy Math

  How big is one coronavirus? How big is a micron? How well do these masks protect against the virus? What can you observe about the size of particles mentioned? Why are we wearing masks? For members we have an editable Word docx of the activity and s…

• 100 Driving Questions and 25 Final Products Related to Covid-19 Pandemic | Mike Kaechele

  Disclaimer: This post assumes that you are already doing responsible online teaching: checking the social and emotional state of your students, giving meaningful feedback but NOT grading their work, and not overwhelming them with too much work.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator:

  Innovative educators know how important it is to provide inclusive, accessible learning environments for their students. While, many have figured this out in the classroom, when teaching and learning remotely, it’s a little different.

• A Principal’s Reflections: Remote Learning Teaching Tips

  There is so much pressure on teachers as more and more schools close for the academic year as a result of COVID19. With little to no training or preparation, they have stepped up to keep learning going. It hasn’t been easy for them to say the least.

• Everything You Need to Know About Building a Great Screencast Video | 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. Early in March, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a domino effect of school closures.

• Schedule – NarraScope

  NarraScope 2020 will take place online from May 28 to June 4, 2020. All times shown are US Eastern time.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Check out these blog posts from this past week:

• Messenger Kids: Pros and Cons of the Facebook Communication App for Parents and Teachers

  If you’re in North America, this wouldn’t be news to you but in Australia and many other countries worldwide, Facebook’s Messenger Kids has just been launched. I’ve been exploring Messenger Kids over the last few days and have found some pros and co…

• What is the importance of learning through play in education?

  Psychologist Abraham Maslow knew the importance of play all too well in his research, and as an educator, you’ve likely heard it before, too. But what’s the hard evidence, and how can you incorporate meaningful play into your curricula?

• 12 Practical Tips for Remote Learning During School Closures – SULS057 | Shake Up Learning

  I’ve put together 12 practical tips for remote learning during school closures.  … I wish I could do this for you. I wish I could take this burden off of the many teachers who are in a panic right now. Take comfort in the fact that we are all in t…

• Flipgrid | Minecraft COVID-19 Challenges

• Using Flipgrid in the Classroom | The Infused Classroom

  First, think about how you want to collaborate with Flipgrid. Then, go to Grid Pals at the top right of your dashboard and look for another teacher that wants to collaborate. You can look at grade and interest level too. Then reach out and let the c…

• Add Audio & Video Instructions to Help Students Navigate Work While Learning Remotely |

  When teachers introduce tasks or assignments in the classroom, they often provide both text and verbal directions. They have the luxury of holding up papers or projecting online assignments to show students exactly what to do.

• Educational Technology Guy: Vernier Software & Technology Offers Free Remote Learning Resources for STEM

  To keep students engaged in STEM learning during school closures, Vernier Software & Technology is offering a robust collection of free remote learning solutions for teachers and students.

• 3 Apps That Energize Learning | Ask a Tech Teacher

  Let’s face it. Teachers juggle an exhausting schedule of parent conferences, administrative tasks, and specialized student needs.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Prom, Dances, School Celebrations: Ideas When #RemoteLearning

  How do you have a prom or other school celebrations in a time of social distancing? Students, staff, and families across the nation are getting innovative. Ideas from across the nation You can check out what some students are doing in the stories be…

• Classroom Games and Tech – Ed-Tech to Engage and Inspire: Inspiring students when school is closed: Game Design Club for middle school

  In Michigan our students will be out of school from March 13 through the end of summer. In an effort to inspire students to create and learn during this time, I revisited my idea of running a virtual game design club. Here’s how I’ve started and a l…

• How To Work From Home Without Getting Stressed-Out – Smart Classroom Management

  As most of you know, I only teach in the afternoons. I work from home in the mornings and then head to school after lunch. It’s been my schedule for the past six years—ever since SCM became too large to maintain while teaching full time. It wasn’t a…

• A Day in the Life of Distance Teaching | Stories From School

  Disclaimer: What follows is not a complaint. It is documentation. I know many have it worse: I recognize that I am beyond lucky to still be employed and receiving a paycheck. But this site is about “where practice meets policy.” What follows is wher…

• Warm-water ‘blobs’ significantly diminish salmon, other fish populations, study says | Puget Sound Institute

  It’s no secret that salmon and other Northwest fish populations are expected to shrink as a result of a warming Pacific Ocean. But a new study suggests that the resulting decline in commercial fishing by 2050 could be twice as great as previously es…

• Three Useful Videos For Students About The Coronavirus | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Abhi_Jacob / Pixabay I’m adding these three videos to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:

• New TED-Ed Video & Lesson: “What happens if you cut down all of a city’s trees?” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Free-Photos / Pixabay I’m adding this new TED-Ed lesson and video toThe Best Sites To Learn About Trees:

• Encouraging Student Engagement in Remote Learning – Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo – Education Week Teacher

  Teacher David Sherrin discusses ideas on how to motivate students in distance teaching and learning and shares some online resources he has created for his classes.

• allthingsassessment.info

  Many readers of this blog will be familiar with the age-old philosophical question that raises a variety of responses regarding what we see and what we perceive:  “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” D…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Reverse the Mirroring Effect in Zoom

  In my recent article titled What’s On My Desktop I mentioned using a small physical whiteboard during live lessons delivered via Zoom or Google Meet. Since then a few people have emailed to ask how I am able to make the writing on the whiteboard not…

• BiomeViewer

  This interactive module explores biomes, climate, biodiversity, and human impacts around the globe and at different times.

• 6 Steps for Genius Hour – Integrating Technology & Genius Hour: My Journey as a Teacher & Learner

  Implementing Genius Hour in your classroom? Here are the 6 steps that Denise Krebs and I have laid out in the NEW 2nd edition of The Genius Hour Guidebook! We hope this helps as you implement this amazing passion/inquiry based learning in your class…

• Self Assessment of Genius Hour Traits – Integrating Technology & Genius Hour: My Journey as a Teacher & Learner

  Hi everyone! I just wanted to quickly share a new resource that Denise Krebs and I put together. This is the new rubric that we are using for Genius Hour. We hope you like it and find it useful to use with your students!

• Here’s How Some Districts Are Requiring (Or NOT Requiring) Teachers To Take Attendance | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  It prompted me to ask teachers on social media what they are required to do. I thought readers might be interested in some of their responses: I believe it’s more of a count of who is active in the class.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Graduation 2020 – Ideas When #RemoteLearning

  Graduation in 2020 will be unlike any graduation before it. While the thought of losing the traditional pomp and circumstance is difficult, there are some innovative options available. Minecraft! Elementary school students in Japan created a Minecra…

• Free Technology for Teachers: By Request – How to Create a Timed Quiz in Google Classroom

  I’m taking a digital portfolio approach to assessment in our remote learning environment and using EDpuzzle for little comprehension checks. But my approach to assessment isn’t the only one you might take.

• Free Nonfiction Articles for Kids and Reading at Home Tips – Class Tech Tips

  Are you looking for resources to recommend to families, or use with your own young children? Earlier this year, I featured PebbleGo on my site and lots of ways to use their reading platform in the classroom.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Meet Gets a Grid View and Higher Quality Video Sharing

  One of the things that many people like about Zoom is the ability to see all participants in a call in a grid on your screen. (It makes me feel like I’m in the opening scene of The Brady Bunch). Now Google is going to offer that ability as a native …

• Top EdTech Update Differentiated Instruction Online Learning Content for Wed.Apr 22, 2020

  Online Teaching Reflection: Day 15 Cycles of Learning Now that the COVID-19 Hackathon I have been facilitating in my engineering courses is coming to a close (see initial ideas here and final proposals here to be posted on Monday, 4/27), I have been…

• Backgrounds For Zoom and Google Meet – Teacher Created Tips

  Our Travel The Map background.As we all adjust to remote education, you’re probably looking for different ways to spice up your visual teaching space. Or maybe you’re just looking to hide the ever-growing pile of laundry and occasional toddler runni…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Sites Templates & Banners

  Years ago Google Sites had a gallery of templates that you could pick from when you were starting to build a website. When the new (current) version of Google Sites was launched in 2016 the template gallery was removed. Today, Google brought back th…

• Teacher – Tyto Online

  tags:games gbl educational

• Teach from Home

• Search-Icon

  In the world’s first history book, Herodotus recounts how the ancient Lydians faced a prolonged period of food scarcity. Months passed without relief and despair set in, spurring the desperate Lydians to implement an unusual solution.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Enable Google Sites Collaboration Through Google Classroom

  After watching my video about Google Sites in my recent Practical Ed Tech newsletter a reader emailed to ask me for ideas for the best way to share Google Sites with her students so that they can all work on the same site.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Few Overlooked Ways to Customize Google Sites

  In a recent article about using digital portfolios for assessment I mentioned using Google Sites and Blogger. Neither of those tools are known for being aesthetically outstanding. In fact, I’d say they’re very plain at best.

• Six Strategic Pen-and-Paper Games (from a Strange and Bottomless Mind) – Math with Bad Drawings

  This year, I’m writing a book about mathematical games.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Gallery AR – Augmented Reality Art on Your Walls

  Gallery AR is a free iPad app and free iPhone app that anyone can use to view classic works of art in augmented reality. The app features art work that was digitized by The Art Institute of Chicago. Gallery AR digitally displays works of art on your…

• Use Explore Explain Apply to plan remote learning lessons

  The Explore Explain Apply framework allows for multiple opportunities for students to receive feedback and to create checkpoints throughout the lesson. With a student task in each section teachers can provide valuable feedback for students before th…

• 6 Super Parent and Teacher Resources to Promote Social Emotional Learning at Home

  Children need social and emotional learning skills to cope. But how do we integrate SEL into remote lesson plans? In this post, I’ll share how we can help students volunteer from home. Volunteering opportunities are one of the easiest ways to make S…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Top 10 Sites for creating a Digital Portfolio

  With the end of the school year coming and schools being closed due to the pandemic a digital portfolio is a great way for students and educators to showcase their work.

• Key Skill: Self-Directed Learning | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

  As I am part of many virtual conversations with educators from around the world, reading through my Twitter feed and reading blog post after blog post, I am hyper aware of this global documentation of a unique “new-ways-of-learning” remote teaching …

• Showcase Student Work on Your Digital Fridge – Mari Venturino

  I miss my kids. A lot. One thing I miss a ton is their creativity. Whenever we have a less-structured minute in class, such as when some students finish an assignment early, many students choose to draw. They love the Sketchbook iPad app.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Add Answer Feedback to Quizzes in Google Forms & How Students See It

  Over the weekend I received an email from a reader who wanted to know what his students saw when feedback was added to quizzes created with Google Forms. That is exactly what I demonstrate in the following new video.

• Welcome to Recycle City | Recycle City | U.S. EPA

• Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: 10 #RemoteLearning Ideas…No #Edtech Required

  Remote Learning… What the we as the the collective group of educators need to realize is that no matter how well we plan lessons and learning in virtual environments it just won’t be enough for our most vulnerable learners.

• 3 Strategies for Personalizing Feedback Online |

  Feedback is one of the most powerful tools teachers have in their “teaching toolbelts” for guiding learners toward mastery. Without feedback, students do not have a clear sense of what they are doing well, what they need to focus on, and what they c…

• COVID-19 #Coronavirus Infographic Data Pack — Cool Infographics

  COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus) has obviously been a hot topic recently, especially within the media. But how dangerous is this new virus?

• Classcraft’s Guide to Remote Education – Classcraft Blog

  Remote education is a growing trend in today’s educational landscape, whether it’s because of coronavirus-related shutdowns or not.

• Teach from Home

  To give any of the suggestions a try, sign in with your G Suite for Education account. If you don’t have one already, your school can sign up here for our free suite of tools. We’re in this together. Join the #teachfromhome discussion on Twitter.

• harlowe:display [Twine Wiki]

• Alaskan Robot Nerd

• Jigsaw Easter Eggs version 1.0 – Classroom Powerups

  A conversation during a recent #XPLAP chat (Tuesdays at 10pm EST) focused on hiding digital Easter Eggs. One of the side conversations made me think about the a card trick that was shared a few months ago.

• The Easiest Classroom Daily Agenda EVER – Technology Pursuit

• Quiz: Can You Spot the Fake News Story? | Channel One News

• A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus | Teaching Tolerance

  “Relationships and well-being can take priority over assignment and behavioral compliance.”

  • Establishing a routine and maintaining clear communication are crucial.
  • Relationships and well-being can take priority over assignment and behavioral compliance.
  • Reach out, provide space and encourage students to connect with them or another trusted adult or counselor to talk about their safety concerns.
  • Help students plan some virtual playdates to distract them from their worries.
  • Make time to ask students about something fun they are doing right now.
  • Promote self-awareness by having students review a feelings chart and share how they are feeling.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Great blog posts and articles from the past week:

• Northern California e-sports league possibly coming to Magnolia Intermediate School | TheUnion.com

• Albuquerque Public Schools holds first ‘esports’ tournament for students | KRQE News 13

• Water Games – Games4Sustainability

• Bringing esports on campus

• How To Give Effective Praise: 6 Guidelines – Smart Classroom Management

  I’ve been writing about praise since 2009, but there is still a lot of confusion over its use. Typically, praise is given far too frequently.

• Free Technology for Teachers: My Updated Five Favorite Google Slides Add-ons

  Earlier this year I published a rundown of my five favorite Google Slides add-ons. Since then a couple of those add-ons have gone the way of the 5.25″ floppy disk. Fortunately, I’ve recently discovered a couple of new Google Slides add-ons that I re…

• Free Technology for Teachers: The Great Thanksgiving Listen is Back!

  For the fifth year in a row StoryCorps is hosting The Great Thanksgiving Listen. This annual event is an effort to get families to talk and record their stories around the Thanksgiving table.

• New USA Today Video: “Wildfires: The science inside the flames” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  skeeze / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from USA Today to The Best Sites For Learning About Forest Fires:

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Studydraft

  Studydraft is an excellent site for online tutoring. The way this works is an educator can place a bid on a student’s order and then the student can select the tutor of their choosing. A student can check the tutor’s background, reviews, and more to…

• its-a-smartphone-life-more-than-half-of-u-s-children-now-have-one

  Just over half of children in the United States — 53 percent — now own a smartphone by the age of 11. And 84 percent of teenagers now have their own phones, immersing themselves in a rich and complex world of experiences that adults sometimes need a…

• Weird happenings at the end of daylight saving time – Yummy Math

  Daylight saving time is controversial, disruptive, useful, saves energy, increases energy consumption, and is inconvenient …  Imagine locations where neighbors are differentiated by one or two hours and experiment with what it might be like to liv…

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Extended Forecasts are Not Reliable

  We are constantly exposed to extended forecasts in the media and online, with predictions extending through the next month and more.

• Civic Alerts, Toxins in Lake – Jefferson County, WA

  tags:water quality waterquality

• how-the-gender-gap-in-stem-might-get-its-start-in-elementary-school

• create-a-tiktok-style-experience-with-google-slides

• Weingarten on NAEP Results | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report Card: “What we see in this data snapshot, while disappointing, is not s…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Slides Randomizer – A Neat Google Slides Add-on

  Slides Randomizer is a Google Slides add-on that will randomly shuffle a set of Google Slides. It’s easy to use the Slides Randomizer add-on.

• 7 Recommended Hands-On STEM Learning Products – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “Learning is not a spectator sport.” – Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann (1996) On this blog I’ve shared thousands of web tools, apps, and resources that are free or offer a freemium option for teachers.

• This Wisconsin newsroom wants to cover esports like high school football – Poynter

• ‘But Mom, Video Games Are My Job’ – The New York Times

• Research shows disconnect between results and students’ perceptions of active learning | Education Dive

• A Tech-Friendly Peer Feedback Strategy – Class Tech Tips

  This past summer, I had the opportunity to work with high school students attending a design camp. In today’s blog post, I want to share with you a combination of two favorite EdTech tools.

• 4-ways-to-power-up-your-classroom-this-fall

• Tips for Creating Infographics with Students – Easy EdTech Podcast 037 – Class Tech Tips

  In this episode we’ll discuss five tips for creating infographics with students, along with a few places to find examples. You’ll also hear about a tool you can use in your classroom to help students make infographics this school year! 4. Establish …

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Face Off – Microsoft or Adobe for #Accessibility

  · 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…

• Mo Physics Mo Problems: Leveled Templates

  After listening to the latest episode of Google Teacher Tribe on templates in G Suite, I was inspired to share out how my co-teacher Andelee Espinosa and I handle leveled templates on our co-taught physics classroom.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Gimkit

  Gimkit is an excellent game based learning solution that makes it easy for educators to assess learning and differentiate instruction. This is done through fun educational games that even students can help create and use for self paced learning.

• STEAM Up Learning with 50 Fabulous Resources! – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “… all children could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people’s ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on this most complex world.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Digital FIRST: Your New Acronym for Accessible Content

  There may be times when you think it is okay to provide a print/paper only version of content for a student. The reality as is you should do this never, ever, never, never, ever. That’s because, if you’re thinking paper first, you’re not thinking ac…

• How One Makerspace is Meeting Students’ Social-Emotional Needs | 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.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great blog posts from this past week:

• • African Elephant – Change Over Time |

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Free Technology for Teachers: DIY Emojis

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

  • Fun Apps for Designing and Printing Characters to Tell Stories

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

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

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

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

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

  • Found Data

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

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

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

  • Respect difficult problems | Seth’s Blog

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

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

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

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

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

  • Geometric Constructions as puzzles – The Reflective Educator

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

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

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

  • Mo Physics Mo Problems: The Fast & The FabLaburios

    Fighting the Inertia of a Traditional Classroom

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

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

  • Gamification – Integrating Game Mechanics into Your Teaching | CoreyRayJones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • The Guide to Google Drive Sharing

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

  • Simplify Technology with Limits : zen habits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • A Principal’s Reflections: The Skinny on Hashtags

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

  • Reclaiming Handwriting – Pernille Ripp

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

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

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

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

  • Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Extempore

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

  • Control Alt Achieve: Social Studies Links

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

  • Manage Multiple Google Accounts – Teacher Tech

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Real teaching means real learning: Trig Ratios animated

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Colleges Seeking Diversity

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

  • Our Mock Caldecott List 2019 – Pernille Ripp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Live Long and Prosper…: Listen to This

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

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

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

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

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

  • When A Student Learns To Code – The Edublogger

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

  • Free Lessons for Teaching Computer Science on Ditch That Textbook

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • I Am Connected, Therefore I Learn |

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

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

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

  • Innovative Science Teaching in Grades 6-12 @coolcatteacher

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

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

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

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

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

  • Alien Earths Online – www.alienearths.org

  • Assessing Learning in Maker Education | Edutopia

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

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

  • Math Is Visual | Math Is Visual

    tags:mathematics math maths visuals visualization online edtech

  • Celebrating positives improves classroom behaviour and mental health – UKEdChat

  • Mecabricks.com

    tags:legos lego online edtech

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

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

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

  • How to Build a Trauma Sensitive Classroom

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

  • 50 New Blog Post Ideas For Educators – The Edublogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are more great resources from this past week:

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

• Alcohol and Drug Abuse in College – Substance Addiction Statistics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some amazing blog posts from this past week:

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

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

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

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

• ditchthattextbook.com

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

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

• Different Definitions of Personalized Learning Conflict Cause Confusion

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

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

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

• Mo Physics Mo Problems: UDL Smackdown

  Fighting the Inertia of a Traditional Classroom

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

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

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

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

• Powercards: Unit 3 Items – Classroom Powerups

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

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

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

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

• Pear Deck for You! – Teacher Tech

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• changing how educators see negative experiences in the classroom

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

• Google Slides Sticky Note Brainstorming Powerful Planning

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

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

• Peers are Powerful

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

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

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

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

  tags:google docs tips shortcuts googledocs

• 7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan –

  tags:pbl questions guide implement implementation plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• A Guide to Gamification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some amazing blog posts from last week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Getting Started with Applied Digital Skills – Mari Venturino

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

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

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

• 30 ways to make your lessons interactive

• The Changing Roles of Educators – Reading By Example

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

• GBD Compare | IHME Viz Hub

• Chart Maker for busy people | Chartify

  Chartify’s chart creator currently only supports desktop browsers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Linda Darling-Hammond vs Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Tech Transformation: Sleep and school start times

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

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

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

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

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

• Using Book Creator for Formative Assessment – Class Tech Tips

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

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

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

• 3 Types Of Motivation – e-Learning Infographics

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

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

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

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

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

• Free Technology for Teachers: How GPS Works

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

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

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

• Windy: Wind map & weather forecast

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Shakespeare Unlimited | Folger Shakespeare Library

• Gender myths dispelled by major new maths study – UKEdChat

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

• A Strategy for Effective Student Collaboration | Edutopia

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

• Microsoft MakeCode

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

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

• NonExamples.com

  A B C Topic:

• All About Explorers

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

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

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

• Silk – Interactive Generative Art

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

• Ba Ba Dum

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

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

• Free Technology for Teachers: Parts of Speech Quest

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

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

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

• Getting Into Gamification – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert

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

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

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

• English Learners in STEM Subjects | Science for All

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

• NGSS Science Assessment Task Screeners | Science for All

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Free Technology for Teachers: MyBib is Back

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

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

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

• Civic Responsibility – Reading By Example

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

• Some Different Ideas to Increase School Sport Participation |

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

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

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

• Gamification has a dark side

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

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

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

• 5 ideas for creating an interactive classroom

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

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

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

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

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

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

• A Principal’s Reflections: What Learners Really Need

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Another batch of great posts from this past week:

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

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

• Grateful to Hit the Reset Button – Classroom Powerups

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

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

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

• Maker Marvelous: Book Page Pumpkins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 18 ways to go gradeless

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

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

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

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

• Level Up Your Talent With Gamification In Talent Management

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

• Two Riddles for Problem Solving

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

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

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

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

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

• Modeling Collaboration | Mike Kaechele

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

• www.meridianstories.com

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

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

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

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

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

• Google Keep: Toggle List View – Teacher Tech

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• ghostmaster25 game design portfolio

• Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Halloween Lesson Resources

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

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

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

• Schools Matter: The case against intensive phonics

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

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

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

• What Does Improvement Science Look Like in Classrooms?

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here is another week’s bounty of great blog posts!

• The Best Sites For Learning About Daylight Saving Time | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Check out my New York Times Learning Network interactive for English Language Learners on Daylight Savings Time. Students identify word meanings, explain the context clues they used to determine them, and then respond to an informational writing pro…

• 21 Things You Should Do To Students – Smart Classroom Management

  1. Create a classroom they look forward to. 3. Be consistently kind to them.

• Free Technology for Teachers: An Easy Way to Create Your Own Captioned Flipped Video Lessons

  Two weeks ago I published a video about how to use the automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. A lot of people have asked if there is a way to download the captions that are automatically generated when you speak while presenting your slides.

• 15 innovative ideas for outside the box teaching

• Top 6 Reasons Why Students Prefer Digital Content – e-Learning Infographics

  The latest study released by McGraw – Hill Education in partnership with Hanover Research has 3000 students voice their digital preferences in college education. The infographic shows research on why students prefer digital reading over print.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Format Tables in Google Docs

  Last week Google added new ruler and margin tools to Google Docs. The new ruler that appears on the left edge of your screen can be used to format the vertical spacing of tables that you insert into Google Documents.

• the secret menu for google slides doc drawings and more

• Free Technology for Teachers: Your Life in Comics – 100 Writing Prompts from Make Beliefs Comix

  Make Beliefs Comix is a nice service on which students can create their own comics. But there is more to Make Beliefs Comix than just comic creation tools. Make Beliefs Comix offers free ebooks containing many writing prompts for students.

• Meet Synch – A Classroom Audio Tool

• Free Technology for Teachers: GeoGreeting – Send Messages Using Google Earth Imagery

  Years ago I wrote about a service called GeoGreeting. This morning I got an email that reminded me of the service so I decided to see if it still works. Sure enough GeoGreeting still works as well as ever.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Scrible Helps Students Organize and Use Research

  Scrible is a service that helps students organize their online and offline research findings. That is done through the Scrible’s website and Chrome extension. Scrible’s Google Docs add-on helps students use their research in their papers.

• New Study Shows That Researchers Don’t Always Think Through How Their Studies Can Be Misused | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The study itself is behind a paywall (there are other ways to access it), and you can read a summary here under the title Why relationships – not money – are the key to improving schools.

• Somethign went wrong…

  Having the “same” text written for different levels of English comprehension can be a life-saver for a multi-level class of English Language Learners or for a teacher with a mainstream class that includes some students that are facing other challeng…

• Text Quest: The Scarlet Letter – Google Slides

• Home

  As part of a school trip to Romania, you and your class decide to create your own side trip: Visit the Castle Poenari, where Vlad the Impaler lived–the same man who inspired Bram Stoker to write the novel Dracula.

• classtechtips.com

  How do your students keep their work organized? And are you able to give feedback to students in real time? When I first started teaching in the classroom, I remember collecting student’s notebooks at the end of the day and flipping through them to …

• Google Classroom: Step One – Organize Your Topics – Teacher Tech

  The new Google Classroom interface allows you to organize your assignments into topics. However, new topics are added at the bottom. It can be incredibly tedious to move a topic up from the bottom to the top.

• Alice Keeler and @JoBoaler #ISTE17 Talk: Google Apps with youcubed.org Math Activities – Teacher Tech

  My favorite book of all time is Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. Truly a life changing experience for me to read it. While the title says Math, it is really a book about teaching. Every educator should read it. To say the least, I am a huge fan o…

• Hiding Easter Egg Items: 10-25 Vlog – Classroom Powerups

  Hello! Join me as I hide some of my physical Easter Eggs through my school building. I began this last year and wasn’t planning on continuing this year but several current students had heard about the game and began asking when I would be hiding car…

• Map of Indigenous Canada Accompanies People’s Atlas – The Map Room

  The map accompanying the Indigenous People’s Atlas of Canada is a map of Indigenous Canada: as iPolitics’s Anna Desmarais reports, “Dotting the map are the names of Indigenous languages, including Cree and Dene, and the geographical location where e…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Find and Modify Halloween Games in Kahoot

  Halloween is only seven days away. If you’re an elementary school teacher, you might be planning to do some trick o’ treating safety reviews with your students. Playing Kahoot games is a fun way to review almost anything including Halloween safety.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Create Digital Scavenger Hunts With Flippity’s New Google Sheets Template

  Flippity is a site that offers great Google Sheets templates that you can use to make flashcards, timelines, and games. The latest game template added to Flippity is a scavenger hunt template.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Kids Health in the Classroom – Guides & Resources for K-12

  Kids Health in the Classroom is a great place to find lesson plans, videos, and games for teaching personal health topics to students of all ages.

• The neuroscience of play, games, and learning (and why Fortnite might not be so bad) @coolcatteacher

  Dr Dave Neale is a researcher in the psychology of play and learning at the Centre for Play, Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) at The University of Cambridge. Today he talks about the neuroscience of play, games, and learning in the classr…

• Fitoons Healthy Eating and Exercising App for Kids – Class Tech Tips

  My friends at Avokiddo made a big announcement today! They just released Fitoons, a new educational app with the goal of helping kids eat healthy and exercise each day. Fitoons can help students develop healthy eating habits and discover ways to add…

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Help Students Address a Garden of Emotions with QR Coded Book Featuring Innovative Wellness Technique

  Before educators can help students get to the learning, we must first ensure we help students feel good about themselves.

• 8 Tips for Carving an Amazing Pumpkin From the “Pumpkin Guru” – GeekDad

  You may remembering seeing Jon Neill on the Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” or sculpting squash in a Snickers ad or carving pumpkins on Nickelodeon or the Hallmark Channel, but you most certainly have seen his work as one of the most recognized pump…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two New Ways for Kids to Create Stories on WriteReader

  WriteReader is one of my favorite tools for elementary school students to use to create multimedia stories. The outstanding feature of the service is the option for teachers to write corrections directly beneath a students’ original writing in their…

• Guest Blogger: Kathleen Offenholley – Quick Games for Any Subject | CUNY Games Network

  This week’s guest blogger is the CGN Steering Committee’s own Kathleen Offenholley, Associate Professor of Mathematics at BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College). Her post offers ideas of quick games for any subject using the elements of rando…

• Media minds need new ways to inform people about climate change | Watching Our Water Ways

  The headline on Margaret Sullivan’s column captures the urgency of the moment: “The planet is on a fast path to destruction. The media must cover this like it’s the only story that matters.” Margaret writes about media issues for the Washington Post.

• The Full Measure of a Teacher: Using value-added to assess effects on student behavior – Education Next : Education Next

  When students look back on their most important teachers, the social aspects of their education are often what they recall.

• Gaming The Classroom – The Art And Science Of GBL: Game Based Learning – e-Learning Infographics

  Over 60% of learners say leader boards and competition would motivate them. 80% of learners would be more productive if learning was more game-like. 97% of teachers use digital games created for educational use.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Taking Off and Landing in Dense Fog: A Miracle of Technolgy

  On Sunday, I flew out of Sea-Tac on a flight that took off around 8 AM. The region was covered in dense fog and the horizontal visibility at Sea-Tac Airport was reported at .12 miles (630 ft) at 1453 UTC (7:53 AM)–see below for hourly reports.

• November 11th Is Veterans Day – Here Are Related Resources | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  November 11th is Veterans Day (recognized as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day in Great Britain and in other countries to specifically remember those who fought in World War I). I’ve just updated The Best Websites To Learn About Veterans Day.

• Free Technology for Teachers: ClassTools SMS Generator – Text Messages Between Historical Figures

  Last week I wrote about three ways that students can create social media profiles for historical and literary characters. Writing that post reminded me of the Classtools Fake SMS Generator.

• Free Technology for Teachers: PicLits – Using Pictures to Inspire Creative Writing

  PicLits is an excellent site for finding creative writing prompts. PicLits aims to provide inspiration for writing short stories. PicLits tries to reach this goal by providing users with images upon which they can build their writing.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Zap Zap Math

  Zap Zap Math is an excellent new mobile (iOS/Android) app for Math grades K-6th. ZZM focuses on a lot different topics such as: addition/subtraction, multiplication, geometry, and more. All of this is done in a fun game based learning environment.

• Control Alt Achieve: Make Mondrian Art with Google Sheets

  Although you might not recognize the name, you most likely will recognize the look. Mondrian Art is an abstract form of art that uses a creative layout of squares and rectangles, often filled in with primary colors.

• Sacrificing Character Ally Cards: Strategic Classroom Thinking – Classroom Powerups

  As part of my Battle Mechanics: Skirmishes system students can earn “Enthralled Allies”. These are historic character cards and up to this point I had a vague notion that these would have an impact in my class game but wasn’t exactly sure how. I hop…

• The Adventure Blog: Video: Hiking Boots vs. Trail Runners –– Which is Best for You?

  I get asked all the time whether I prefer trail running shoes or hiking boots when heading out for the trail. It turns out, the answer to that question isn’t easy, as it depends on the trail, the length of the trip, the terrain and weather condition…

• The Future Proof Educator

• Making a Plan for Student Engagement with Tech-Friendly Strategies – Class Tech Tips

  What does student engagement truly look like? And are we making it a priority when entering classrooms and leading lessons? As an educator who now spends time in other teachers’ classrooms, I think about this topic often.

• Twitch, Yubo & online safety innovation with an ancient ‘tool’ – NetFamilyNews.org | NetFamilyNews.org

  As geeky as “content moderation” sounds, we’re hearing about it more and more these days – in podcasts, at conferences, in books and in hearings. People all over the U.S.

• The Nerdy Teacher: The Dog Days of Fall for Teachers #EdChat

  The Fall part of the school year can be tough on teachers for many reasons.

• A Lever and a Place to Stand: Escape to Flippity.net

  I’ve written several times about the amazing free tools at Flippity.net. In fact, when I am looking for a way to get people interested in spreadsheets, I almost always use Flippity because once people see the variety of the tools, and how easy it is…

• Video: “The History of Trick or Treating” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from Reading Through History to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:

• Environmental volunteers needed in Kitsap County | Watching Our Water Ways

  I thought I would offer a quick note on some volunteer opportunities in Kitsap County, based on an email from WSU Kitsap County Extension.

• A Principal’s Reflections: Meaningful Learning Begins and Ends with the Opportunities We Create

  Learning hasn’t really changed, but the conditions that impact and influence it has.

• What Are the Best Ways to Use Leveled Texts? | 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. A few weeks ago, a teacher named Isabelle O’Kane sent me a direct message on Twitt…

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here some of this week’s amazing blog posts:

• 21 Things You Should Never Do To Students – Smart Classroom Management

  Effective classroom management is as much about what you don’t do. As it is about what you do.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: The Winter Transition is Imminent

  It is like falling off a meteorological cliff. And it happens every year. The transition to winter weather in the Pacific. It is a real meteorological curiosity.

• Machine Teaching, Machine Learning, and the History of the Future of Public Education

  These are my prepared remarks, delivered on a panel titled “Outsourcing the Classroom to Ed Tech & Machine-learning: Why Parents & Teachers Should Resist” at the Network for Public Education conference in Indianapolis. The other panelists were Peter…

• Innovation in Education – Reading By Example

  I walked into a classroom that was modeling the story structure process. The teacher had provided one-word sentence starters as a guide. The students were using this structure to organize a personal narrative in their writing journals.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create Storyboard Templates in Google Slides or PowerPoint

  Creating a storyboard is an excellent way for students to plan video projects. Storyboards provide a frame-by-frame outline of the plot of a video.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Ways to Make Social Media Profiles for Historical and Literary Characters

  Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who was looking for a way that her students could create fake Facebook and other social media profiles based on historical and literary characters.

• Gaming Association of Manitoba Educators – Keynote » edurealms.com

  Wow.  200+ educators in one place to explore all things related to games and learning!!  Thank you @gametolearnmb for organizing an incredible event!  I wish I could be physically present to hang out with you all (y’all as we say, ’round here) and l…

• 12 must have teamplates for teachers and students

• Legal settlement could help protect salmon eggs incubating in gravel | Watching Our Water Ways

  Washington Department of Ecology has agreed to take steps to protect wild salmon eggs incubating in gravel by developing entirely new water-quality standards to control fine sediment going into streams.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Set Start and End Times for Videos in Google Slides

  This morning I answered an email from a reader who had a question about ytCropper. The link ytCropper link for her cropped video wasn’t working in Google Slides. My solution was to not use ytCropper and instead just use the built-in formatting tools…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Why Have Students Make Simple Animations?

  Last week I wrote about having middle school students create presentations from a combination of illustrations and videos that they made. In that post I shared Brush Ninja animation tool. That’s just one of many tools that students could have used t…

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Beautiful weather produces noisy mornings!

  Yesterday morning I received an email from blog reader Emily Vilbrant wondering about an increase of train noise during the morning hours. Distant trains sounded unusually loud and clear. Emily asked if I might have an explanation. And I have been n…

• Virtual Reality Employee Training Is Here. Should You Adopt?

  Imagine a world in which new hires can practice running through chaotic Black Friday scenarios without interacting with actual customers and potentially harming your brand.

• Metacognition Hyperdoc – Mari Venturino

  This year I’m doing something entirely crazy with my AVID class–I’m going (mostly) gradeless! It’s a bit scary, seeing as I have to report grades each six weeks. So, my solution is to have students keep a portfolio, then reflect on their progress an…

• Class Rules Focus Poster in Rainbow Colors – Mrs. Harris Teaches…

  The classroom rules focus poster I created was originally designed in blue and green. Although my classroom color scheme has always been blue and green, other teachers have different color palettes. With that in mind, I created several different col…

• The Moral Imperative of Sharing | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

  We are all on our own learning journey. All of us have different experiences and backgrounds. Some of us have been reflecting on the paradigm shift in education longer than others.

• Equal Earth Gets a Wall Map – The Map Room

  It was announced today at NACIS that the Equal Earth projection is now available as a wall map—which is a necessary thing if it’s going to go toe-to-toe with the Peters map.

• how dungeons dragons primes students for interdisciplinary learning including stem

  “Dungeons & Dragons, and other narrative role playing games of its kind, provide many opportunities for learning,” said Simkins. “Participation in narrative role play can open up interests in topics such as mathematics, science, history, culture, et…

• A-Frame – Make WebVR

  A web framework for building virtual reality experiences Make WebVR with HTML and Entity-Component Works on Vive, Rift, Daydream, GearVR, desktop Get Started Supported by

• Getting started with VR

  As I attend conferences and education events, the topic that seems to be on everyone’s lips is augmented and virtual reality. After doing some research, I wanted to see what it would take to introduce AR / VR into the classroom. I found a tool calle…

• How Many Ways Can You Write 27 + 8? – Teacher Tech

  Rule, after you find the solution whatever way you want, you have to do it another way. Too often we focus on algorithm procedures rather than number sense or place value.

• EDU in 90 – YouTube

  EDU in 90 is a new video series from Google for Education. Each episode, we’ll focus on an important topic for educators, administrators, and school leaders – things like product updates, new programs, and helpful resources for the classroom.

• 8 Halloween Reads to Make Your October Spooktacular

  In this collection of Halloween reads there’s something for kids, teens, and adults, whether you prefer your October filled with silliness, spooks, or full-on scares.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A New LOC Online Collection – Theodore Roosevelt’s Papers

  I have always found Theodore Roosevelt to be one of the most fascinating characters in U.S. History. That is why I was excited this morning when I saw an email from the Library of Congress announcing the online publication of Theodore Roosevelt’s pa…

• Single-point rubrics and Checkmark make your life easier & your kids smarter | History Tech

  We’ve all been there. You just finished putting together a great instructional lesson or unit. Kids are gonna love it. They’re working together. Doing research. Creating stuff, not just consuming it. The historical thinking will be off the charts. T…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: GameBuilder

  GameBuilder is an excellent site for game based learning that I just found out about from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. Not only can an educator find any number of games on a wide range of subjects they can also select a template and create their own game.

• Dancing Robots & More | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Robots at Work and Play is a photo gallery from The Atlantic.

• Free Technology for Teachers: JotForm – A Better Way to Create Online Forms

  If you have ever looked at a form on a web page and thought, “I’d like my forms to look like that,” then JotForm is the service you need to try. JotForm is a service for making fillable online forms.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Money-Saving Facebook Setting Phone Providers Don’t Want You to Know

  If you have Facebook on your phone, you may have noticed that videos automatically play. If you are not connected to WiFi this eats up your data. Here’s what my data looks like: When talking with some colleagues we were discussing this and found out…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Design a Custom Certificate in Google Slides

  On Monday I shared tutorials for two ways to send personalized certificates via Google Forms and Google Sheets. What I didn’t include in those tutorials was how to create a custom certificate without using the default certificate template found in G…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Wakelet Makes it Easier to Organize Bookmarks

  Wakelet is quickly becoming a popular choice amongst teachers who want to create collections of notes that can include text, videos, links, and pictures. Students can use it for the same purpose and share their collections with their teachers.

• Turn School Permission Forms into PDFs with JotForm – Class Tech Tips

  Collecting and keeping track of permission forms can be an organizational headache for schools. As you work to leverage the power of technology in your school, you can combine online data entry with traditional PDF files.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A New Vertical Ruler and New Margin Settings in Google Docs

  Google has added two new formatting features to Google Docs. First, there is now a vertical ruler that you can use to evenly space the rows in tables in your Google Documents. Second, you can now adjust the size of the margins in your headers and fo…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Case Maker – Civics Lessons Built on Primary Sources

  Case Maker is a free service designed for middle school social studies teachers and their students. Case Maker uses primary sources from the Library of Congress as the basis of activities in which students have to build a case in response to real ci…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Unhangout

  Unhangout is an interesting new site from MIT for creating events/backchannel chats, that I just found out about from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog.

• Reflections on Situated Learning vs. The Traditional School System |

  The more I learn about situated learning theory, developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, the more I find myself reflecting on the sharp contrast between authentic learning and the design of traditional schools and curriculum.

• Stop Collecting Papers – Classroom Powerups

  I am trying to get better at my click-bait titles. How did that one sound? The only thing better would be if I could get a Listicle title in there – 5 Ways to Stop Collecting Papers… Maybe next week.

• Atomic Habits: How to Easily Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones – Hack Learning

  Thanks so much for stopping by Hack Learning. Please join others like you who have decided to become a Master Teacher. Grab your copy of the 10 Habits of Master Teachers presentation now. Click on the form below, enter your email, and you’ll have 10…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Halloween Articles for ELA Lessons

  ReadWorks is a popular service that offers a huge library of standards-aligned ELA lesson plans for K-12. You can search the ReadWorks library according to grade level and topic. Throughout the year ReadWorks publishes curated collections to align w…

• TED-Ed Launches Cool New Animated Poetry Video Series | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  TED-Ed is launching a weekly video series of animated poetry. The first one is only available on Facebook right now, and it’s embedded below. I assume they’ll soon start showing them on their regular YouTube channel.

• Video: “Deepfake Videos Are Getting Real and That’s a Problem” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  GDJ / Pixabay I’m adding this new video to The Best Tools & Lessons For Teaching Information Literacy – Help Me Find More:

• New Video: “The Origins of Halloween” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  QuinceMedia / Pixabay I’m adding this new Reading Through History video to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:

• Notable Books, Notable Lessons: Putting social studies back into K-8 | History Tech

  Full confession. Elementary kids freak me out. They’re sticky. They smell funny. And they throw up. All the time. Seriously. All the time. Every day.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Elementari

  Elementari is a wonderful new site for digital storytelling and project based learning that I just found out about from Larry Ferlarzzo’s excellent blog.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How I Found a Google Earth File of 550+ Ancient Greek Places

  Last night on Twitter Wes Fryer asked me if I knew of any Google Earth files that displayed ancient Greek locations. I didn’t have anything within my own bookmarks so I did a quick Google search that I filtered according to file type. I first filter…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Import Files Into Google Earth

  In my previous post I shared the steps that I took to find a Google Earth file that contains more than 550 ancient locations in ancient Greece. At the end of the video in that post I demonstrated how I was able to display those locations in Google E…

• Control Alt Achieve: 360 Degree Learning with Google Tour Creator

  Google has a rich history of creating map-related tools that can be used across all subject areas for engaging, immersive learning experiences. Some of these include Tour Builder, Earth, Expeditions, My Maps, and many more (see my slideshow on Googl…

• The Golden Age of Podcasting

• Free Technology for Teachers: New Ways to Personalize Certificates in the Certify’em Google Forms Add-on

  Certify’em is a Google Forms Add-on that I have been using all year to issue certificates when people complete one of my professional development webinars or courses. Certify’em makes it easy to have certificates automatically emailed to people when…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Send Personalized Certificates via Google Forms or Google Sheets

  From perfect attendance to volunteerism to honor roll there are lots of occasions during the school year for schools to issue certificates to students.

• The Ultimate Guide To Twitter 2018

  Most educators who learn to use Twitter effectively say they learn more from their personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter than any other forms of professional development or personal learning.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: If You Worry About Climate Change and Care About the Environment, Vote No on I-1631

  If you care about the environment, if you worry about global warming, and if this summer’s smoke is of concern, you should vote against Washington State Initiative 1631. If you are like me, you are worried about the impacts of increasing CO2 in the …

• OneNote Class Notebook: A Digital Binder That Will Change the Way You Teach | Cult of Pedagogy

  This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. Now imagine doing all of those things inside a single digital platform, where you could share and deliver materials, access student work, and allow students to work together seamlessly at school or …

• EdTech Nut – Kelly Fitzgerald: Thinking/Sentence Frames for All Content Areas

  Thinking Frames are used to help students begin the thought process by providing a model for organizing their thinking. They should be used in any classroom K-12, regardless of level or content area.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: Tool to Brand Yourself or School with a Logo

  Educational institutions are becoming more and more aware of the importance of branding staff and schools in our digital world. However schools and districts often don’t consistently have and/or use their logo and slogan in their materials.

• Free Logo Maker, Create Custom Logo Designs Online – DesignEvo

  Not a registered user yet? Sign Up Already have an account? Login

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: SOLE

  SOLE is a “self organized learning environment” that is a wonderful app for mobile learning and integrating technology into the classroom. The way this works is by a simple process: asking a question or selecting one, investigating/collaborating w/ …

• Google Maps Walking Tours with Street Views and Screencasting

• The 56 Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2018 | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  With this post, I’m beginning to publish my end-of-year “The Best….” lists. There are over 1,700 regularly updated lists now.  You can see them all here.  You can also find many of them organized a bit differently here.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Another collection of great blog posts from this past week:

• The Adventure Blog: So Far This Year the Arctic Sea Ice isn’t Reforming as it Should

  When it comes to climate change and warming temperatures on a global scale, one of he canaries in the coal mine has always been the Arctic and Antarctic ice.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Edthena

  Edthena is a wonderful site/app for professional development that uses an innovative “video coaching” approach. This is done through a very user-friendly browser based interface where educators can record themselves right from the web (i.e. they can…

• Open World Class and Feedback Loops: 10-12-18 CPU Vlog – Classroom Powerups

  This has become a bit of a running theme in my thinking lately. A lot of my game inspired design comes from Open World or Sandbox Style Games.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Kindness Bookmarks and Kindness Bingo

  This week I had the opportunity to observe a great teacher-librarian in action at Sigsbee Charter School in Key West, Florida. One of the activities that she did with kids was making “kindness bookmarks.” The kids made bookmarks like the one in the …

• Free Technology for Teachers: Answers to FAQs About Automatic Captioning of Google Slides

  Last night I published a video demonstration of the new automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. Today, I’ve received eight emails from readers asking questions about automatic captioning.

• Helping Learners to be Kind Online and Offline – Teacher Reboot Camp

  October is National Bullying Prevention month. I like to focus on getting students to spread kindness and feel the benefits of being kind versus being mean to others. Many children play social games, such as Roblox and Fortnite, and experience cyber…

• iThrive Games ::

  The potential for video games to empower teens has been largely overlooked even though video games allow for players to stretch their skills, take risks, and explore who they are and who they want to be.

• 4 Big Shifts That Can Personalize the Learning Journey | EdSurge News

  What needs to happen to move your school or district toward an effective implementation of personalized learning? According to EdSurge Fusion conference speaker, Dr. Scott McLeod, there are Four Big Shifts that propel “deeper learning schools” along…

• The New Google Sites: The Good, The Bad, and Nothing Ugly! | Shake Up Learning

• Coding posters for printing PDF.pdf – Google Drive

• Three Things Teachers Need to Spot—and Stop—Plagiarism | EdSurge News

• “This Is 18” Is A Great NY Times Interactive | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Yesterday was The International Day of the Girl (see The Best Resources For “The International Day Of The Girl”), and The New York Times published a great feature headlined This is 18. It highlights images, music and commentaries from eighteen-year-…

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create Personalized Certificates in Bulk Through Google Sheets

  Creating a certificate for one or a few students is a fairly straight forward process. You can use Google Slides, Canva, or any number of Word templates for that.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Halloween Writing Activity for Elementary and Middle School Students

  Earlier this week I shared a bunch of Halloween-themed math and science resources. If you’re looking for a writing activity that has a Halloween theme, consider having students create Halloween cards.

• Is it more about what you can teach or what they can learn? – The Principal of Change

  In a workshop, an educator shared their reluctance to try some of the things that I was suggesting with students in their classroom. Luckily, I had students joining me in the workshop and asked them for some feedback.

• 10 Ways that College Classes Differ From High School

  Sadhvi Mathur Senior Blogger at CollegeVine Sadhvi is a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, double majoring in Business Administration and Media Studies.

• Two Videos About Hurricanes | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  Thoughts and prayers to those affected by Hurricane Michael.

• Why Graphic Novels Belong in All of Our Libraries – Pernille Ripp

  Look at that; an incredible graphic novel is shortlisted for the National Book Award.  Image from School Library Journal.

• Google Slides Templates for Snapchat Games in Class – Ditch That Textbook

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Projector Screen

  ProjectorScreen.com is an excellent site for people or educators to find projectors and other type of equipment for their classrooms. Not only can a person search through an immense amount of screens, but from other categories such as fixed or manua…

• Free Technology for Teachers: More Halloween Science and Math Lessons

  Last week I shared a handful of Halloween-themed math and science activities. PBS Learning Media also has a collection of Halloween-themed science and mathematics lessons.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Synth – Quickly Record Short, Interactive Podcasts

  Synth is a new service from Swivl. Synth is a free service that you can use to record short podcast episodes that are up to 256 seconds long. When you record your episode you post it publicly for others to listen to and record spoken responses.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Using Brush Ninja and Screencastify to Make Science Presentations

  This week I had the opportunity to work in an eighth grade science class. I was there to help their teacher help them learn new ways to make presentations. The topic of their presentations was “forms of energy.” That topic lends itself to having stu…

• Good Work Leads to More Work | Mike Kaechele

  This is the fifth post in a series where I flesh out why the ideal traits of a PBL teacher are important. Check out the links to the rest of the series below the post. I am a believer in hard work. I always tell my students that “good work leads to …

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: New Infographic: 8 Dates All Teachers of #EdTech #DigCit #MediaLiteracy Should Know

  Post this on your wall for 2018/2019 school year as a reminder of all the dates you can celebrate ways to prepare modern learners. Visit the infographic here.

• VLookup: Creating Battle Damage – Classroom Powerups

  I’m stepping on Alice Keeler’s corner and I think I need to watch my back! In my Dreadsheets, whether they are clashes or boss fights, I try to include “Battle Damage” or images that show when a student or team’s hit points decrease.

• Jennifer Binis’ #PairedTexts Is An Amazing Resource For Teachers & Their Students | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  For a long time, Jennifer Binis has been sharing #pairedtexts on Twitter. She scours the media to find contrasting articles, photos, quotes, etc. that are great teaching tools for a variety of classes.

• Teaching Resources On U.N. Report On Climate Change | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  You’ve probably heard about the terrifying United Nations report on climate change that was issued this week. Here are some useful teaching resources on the report.

• Starting With the Questions to Develop Curiosity and Better Solutions – The Principal of Change

  I first heard about the idea of “Problem-Finders” from Ewan McIntosh, and it always struck me as something we should be focusing on in education: “Currently, the world’s education systems are crazy about problem-based learning, but they’re obsessed …

• The Data Says…What? (Or: Why we struggle to make sense of literacy assessment results) – Reading By Example

  Our instructional leadership team recently analyzed the last two years of writing assessment data. We use a commercial-based rubric to score student writing in the fall and in the spring.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Eight Options for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks

  Recording screencasts is one relatively easy way to get started making videos in your classroom. Today, I helped some middle school students make screencasts in which they explained the animations they made to represent forms of energy.

• The Many Lives of Doctor Who: A First Glimpse Into the 13th Doctor – GeekDad

  Titan Comics presents a myriad of artists reliving 12 moments, one for each of the previous doctors.

• Leveraging the Lore of Dungeons and Dragons to Motivate Students to Read and Write

  MindshiftSep 25 Overcoming Childhood Trauma: How Parents and Schools Work to Stop the Cycle Many people have experienced some kind of trauma in their childhood, such as loss of a caregiver, substance abuse in the home, homelessness or abuse.

• Google Slides Gets Automated Captions – HUGE Help To Online Teachers Of English; Could Maybe Help In Regular Classroom | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  I would imagine that every single educator who teaches English Language Learners online are jumping for joy today – Google announced that Google Slides will now provide automatic slide captioning for everything a speaker says.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Has Added a Captioning System to Google Slides

  Today, Google announced a new Google Slides feature that some teachers are going to love. Google Slides now has a real-time captioning system. This system works when you are presenting your slides (full screen) and have a microphone connected to you…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Is Shutting Down Google+

  This afternoon Google published an official blog post about their Project Strobe data and privacy audit project. The leading portion of that Google announced that the consumer edition of Google+ is going to be shut down.

• Free Technology for Teachers: The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival – Videos Based on Newbery Winning Books

  Thanks to one of the great teachers that I am working with at Sigsbee Charter School I learned about the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. The festival is really a contest that is organized by YA author James Kennedy.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two Detailed Presentations About Copyright for Educators

  Earlier this evening I answered an email from a teacher who was looking for some resources about copyright that she could share with colleagues in her school. There were two resources that immediately came to mind when I read her question. The first…

• Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: Making The Best Technology Purchasing Decisions

  In our next collaborative post, Shaelynn Farnsworth (@shfarnsworth) and I discuss how schools and districts can make the best technology purchasing decisions. Recently I was talking to a Tech Director colleague that was in the middle of a purchasing…

• The Nerdy Teacher: Writing IS Making #MakerEd #CSforAll

  The more I have spent time sharing Making and Makerspace with people, the more I get to reflect on those conversation and see how others perceive the act of making. I also spend time thinking about my own practices and how I used to teach in my Engl…

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: No. You Haven’t Been Hacked Or Cloned 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…

• Lessons From Sherlock Holmes: It’s Elementary! – The Edublogger

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories was lucky enough to rediscover his love of literature in his later years. Is this true for all students?

• DB Quest: The latest super sweet tool from iCivics and Library of Congress | History Tech

  A few days ago, I bragged on one of the latest Library of Congress interactive tools titled CaseMaker. Part of the Teaching with Primary Sources project, CaseMaker joined the three earlier tools that rolled out last year. But wait. There’s more.

• Tough Topics – Josh Stumpenhorst

  Sexual assault, rape, harassment, and abuse are currently hot topics in the world and often ones we don’t like talking about. In light of recent world events, I’ve thought a great deal about these topics and their impact on our society.

• Hood Canal avoids a major fish kill following unwelcome conditions | Watching Our Water Ways

  Southern Hood Canal avoided a major fish kill this year, but for a few days in September it looked like conditions were set for low-oxygen waters to rise to the surface, leaving fish in a critical state with no place to go, experts say.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Good Reminders About Password Security

  The mot recent Facebook hoax making its rounds has prompted me to remind everyone about the importance of using strong and varied passwords (don’t use the same password for Facebook as you do for your bank account).

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Do Wind Turbines Enhance Global Warming? No!

  There were a series of headlines in a variety of media outlets this week suggesting an unfounded and unphysical claim: that wind turbines might contribute to global warming. Some examples below: The key issue is that frequently the surface is cooler…

• Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Problems with Evidence-based Education: Side Effects in Education

  The following is the Introduction of my book What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education published by Teachers College Press in June 2018. “Ibuprofen may cause a severe allergic reaction,” you are warned when you buy a bottle of Advil, and “this …

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are some great posts from this past week:

• How Not To Feel Resentment Over Difficult Students – Smart Classroom Management

  It’s normal to feel angry. How could you not? You have a student who is ruining your school year.

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: 7 Dates #EdTech Teachers Need to Know

  If you teach tech, then you need to know when important tech topics are celebrated across the year.

• 10-5-18 CPU Vlog: Battles and Open Worlds – Classroom Powerups

  It is Reflection Friday on the Classroom Powerups Vlog! This Friday I discuss how I use my Battle Mechanics as a classroom review system and its impact on my Feedback Loops.

• Science teacher: Getting certified, FRS-NJ version

  I do get, however, why credentialing of some sort can be useful at times, and have participated when necessary. I have been board certified as a pediatrician, and am currently certified as a public school teacher in the state of New Jersey.

• DeVos Doles Out $399 Million to Charter Schools and Charter Organizations | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Politico reports the latest federal handouts for charter schools and charter advocacy organizations, as well as to state agencies. There is no sector of American education less in need of federal funding than charter schools.

• Control Alt Achieve: Turn Google Slides into an Animated GIF with this Free Tool

  With Tall Tweets you can import a Google Slideshow, set the duration for each slide (as well as some other options), and then create and download an animated GIF version of your slideshow. First you need to finish creating the Google Slideshow that …

• 50 ideas for using video in the classroom

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Writer Igniter

  Writer Igniter is a nice little tool for writing prompts that I just found out about from Ozge Karaoglu’s wonderful blog. All a teacher has to do is click on the “shuffle” button and a random character, situation, prop, and setting, will appear and …

• Zombies, Run! — Hey Siri, Raise the Gates!

  1.5M ratings 277k ratings See, that’s what the app is perfect for. Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna Hey Siri, Raise the Gates! That’s right – in our latest 7.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Land Breeze Clouds

  This morning I was at an early meeting at the UW, looking out towards the West and I saw a line of low-level clouds and I recognized their origin…. clouds over the Sound produced by converging land breezes from both shores. Here is a satellite ima…

• Ongoing lack of rainfall raises concerns for chum, coho salmon | Watching Our Water Ways

  We’ve just gone through one of the driest five-month periods on record in Kitsap County, yet the total precipitation for entire water year was fairly close to average.

• The Philippines is building a green, disaster-resilient city

  (CNN) – In one of the most disaster-prone regions on the planet, a new city has been designed specifically to withstand natural calamities — and it’s being built using remnants of a major disaster.

• Future cities: the rise and rise of smart grids | News | Eco-Business | Asia Pacific

  Faced with a burgeoning urban population and the need to achieve resource efficiency, city planners are increasingly seeking solutions to green their infrastructural systems and smart grids are poised to play a key role in this transformation.

• In British Virgin Islands, hurricane whips up green energy transition | Reuters

  ROAD TOWN (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly a year after Hurricane Irma knocked out power across the British Virgin Islands, electricity boss Leroy Abraham will be among the last residents to have their homes reconnected.

• Japanese cities move towards distributed energy systems to power-proof from natural disasters – Climate Action

  According to a research conducted by Reuters in the city of Higashi Matsushima, a ‘silent’ revolution has been happening in Japan in the wake of the 2011 fatal earthquake and tsunami, with more and more municipalities setting up distributed energy s…

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Answerables

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

• 3DBear AR – Explore learning with AR and 3D printing

  Human life is inherently creative. It is the common currency of being a human being. *Tarjoamme 7 päivän ilmaisen kokeilun. Huomioithan, että sinun tulee olla yli 18 vuotta vanha tai sinulla tulee olla huoltajan suostumus.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Wakelet Has a New Sections Option

  Wakelet is a free bookmarking and note-sharing service that I first tried back in April when I started to look for new alternatives to Padlet. On Wakelet you can create collections of notes that can include text, videos, links, and pictures.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Add Custom Covers to Podcasts You Make on Anchor

  Anchor has become my favorite tool for creating podcasts. In a matter of minutes you can have your first podcast episode recorded, edited, and published (watch this video to see how). You can do that on your laptop, on your phone (Android or iOS), o…

• Arizona: Governor Ducey, Facing Election, Decides It Is Time to Curb Charter Corruption | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona has been a stalwart champion of unregulated charters and vouchers. He has looked the other way when members of the legislature pass laws to enrich themselves while running charter chains and voucher programs.

• Passionate PBL | Mike Kaechele

  This is the fourth post in a series where I flesh out why the ideal traits of a PBL teacher are important. Check out the links to the rest of the series below the post. It’s cliche, but of course most teachers are passionate about their students and…

• When They Abandon Every Single Book – Pernille Ripp

  “….well, I didn’t finish any books last year…”She turns to me and smiles. “What do you mean?”  I ask, not sure I have heard her correctly, after all, I know what amazing work they do in 6th grade. “….I just stopped reading them, I didn’t finish them.

• Free Technology for Teachers: My Tips for Managing Student Blogs – One for All or All Have One?

  In the course of a year I get to run a lot of workshops about blogging.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Fun and Free State & Country Capital Identification Game

  Capital Toss is a free geography game from ABCya. The game has a state capitals mode and a country capitals mode. In both modes of the game works the same way. The name of a state or country appears at the bottom of the screen and three rows of capi…

• Five Apps for Reducing Isolation and Increasing Connectedness – Reading By Example

  The principalship, as well as other leadership positions in schools, can be isolating. We typically don’t have a team of our own within a building.

• Item Alchemy: Student Created Mash-ups – Classroom Powerups

  First, just a refresher and some vocabulary. In my classroom Items are Powerup Cards that students can earn in a number of ways. To see my first two series of item cards click here: 2018-19 Items: Unit 1 Cards, 2018-19 Items: Unit 2 Cards.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Share Your Google VR Tours With Students

  Over the last few weeks I have received a lot of emails from readers who had made virtual reality tours in Google’s VR Tour Creator but then ran into difficulty sharing those tours with their students.

• Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: Taking Collaboration And Teacher PD To Another Level With Verso Learning

  When I was teaching Middle School Science I always tried to encourage academic discussion among my students. As a group we would debate results from various experiments, attempt to understand current events in science and talk about how science was …

• Library of Congress adds awesome new tools. Today? Case Maker. | History Tech

  A year or so ago, the Library of Congress introduced three new apps that focused on civics and the use of primary sources. Eagle Eye Citizen, Engaging Congress and Kid Citizen were developed through the LOC’s Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) prog…

• Elementary Book Club for Advanced Readers |

  When I work with elementary teachers, one of the biggest challenges they face is the wide range of reading skills in their classrooms. A first-grade class may have students who are struggling to decode while other students are reading at a third-gra…

• 2018-19 Items: Unit 2 Cards – Classroom Powerups

  I am a huge proponent of using ITEMs in the classroom. These are powerups that allow students to change their experience in the classroom by changing the rules or expectations within the classroom universe.

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Science & Math Resources That Have a Halloween Theme

  SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos covering topics that are frequently connected to symbols of Halloween. Those topics are bats, spiders, skeletons, and the changing colors of leaves.

• Should You Use Student Photos Online? – The Edublogger

  This is an update of a post that was first written by Sue Waters in 2013. Whether you’re blogging, using social media, producing videos, or publishing any digital creations, the topic of student privacy must always be considered.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Voicepods Has New Editing Features – Turn Text Into Voice Recordings

  A few weeks ago I introduced a new tool called Voicepods. Voicepods is a service that will create voice recordings based on the text that you write.

• Strategies to Promote Inquiry in Your Classroom – Class Tech Tips

  When students take part in inquiry-based learning they pose questions and research issues. Promoting inquiry in your classroom can take many forms. So I was excited to connect with Trevor MacKenzie who has written books on the subject.

• 5 LMS Mistakes To Avoid Infographic – e-Learning Infographics

  A Learning Management System (LMS) is designed to solve the problems around training, but not cause new ones..obviously.

• Everyone Can Create

  Have you heard the news? I am so excited to share a new, totally free set of resources from Apple Education. Today Apple Education released four books of lesson ideas and one teacher guide to spotlight the ways Everyone Can Create.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Mind Over Media – New Resource for Teaching Propaganda and Media Literacy

  I first met Professor Renee Hobbs from the Media Education Lab last spring at the SXSWedu conference. She led a fascinating discussion about how to foster media literacy and digital literacy in an age of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.

• For this Bullying Prevention Month, a bit of clarity – NetFamilyNews.org | NetFamilyNews.org

  The Pew Research Center just published a surprisingly high figure under a headline referring to “cyberbullying.” The authors report that 59% of US 13-17 year-olds had experienced some form of it. But it’s important to zoom in on the “some form of” p…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Good Places to Find Writing Prompts

  Anyone who has ever taught language arts has heard, “I don’t know what to write about” from a student or two. If you’ve ever heard that from a student, take a look at the following sites and apps to find writing prompts. Emoji Prompts uses emojis as…

• Watch and share YouTube videos safely | teachers and family friendly YouTube

  Kids Are 3 Clicks Away From Improper Content On YouTube …Safe YouTube Solved This! Surrounding Youtube Videos Decrease Attention To Your Video …Safe YouTube Solved This! Teachers Can Now Show YouTube In Classroom …

• boardgamegeek.com

  Patrick Rael (prael) United States Brunswick Maine We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. Heading to College of the Holy Cross for a workshop on using boardgames in college classrooms. Here’s an introductory handout I intend to use. Hap…

• Steven Singer: The Six Biggest Problems with Data-Driven Instruction | Diane Ravitch’s blog

  Steven Singer writes here about the mechanistic, anti-child implicationsand consequences of data-driven Instruction. He identifies six issues. I offer only the first of these problems. To learn about the other five, open the link. He writes: No teac…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Digital Portfolio Styles – And Tools for Making Them

  This post originally appeared in my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter and on my Practical Ed Tech website. This week I am working with a group of teachers who want to have their middle school students create digital portfolios that they will maintain thr…

• Control Alt Achieve: Create Halloween Rebus Stories with Emojis and Google Docs

  In earlier posts I have shared Google Docs templates for creating Emoji Rebus Stories for both Wintertime and Valentine’s Day. With Fall coming soon, I have put together a Halloween-themed version.

• Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog: Is Global Warming A Significant Contributor to Washington State Wildfires, Now or in the Future?

  During the past several summers there have been major wildfires in Washington State producing a lot of smoke. And many people have been asking an important question: To what degree is anthropogenic global warming contributing to Washington State wil…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Tools for Teaching With YouTube Videos

  If you can get past the distraction of cute animal videos, video game highlights, and other nonsense, you can find excellent educational videos on YouTube. But even then it’s not enough to just share the video with your students either in your class…

• Seven Things That Happen When Students Share Their Work – John Spencer

  When my middle son was in the third grade, he volunteered to share a joke with a big audience at a family camp. As I watched him standing in the line with older kids and quite a few adults, I felt nervous.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Seterra Offers Science Quiz Games

  A couple of weeks ago I featured Seterra’s hundreds of geography quiz games that are available in more than thirty languages. But geography isn’t the only subject that Seterra offers quiz games about. Seterra also offers games about human anatomy, p…

• 10 Core Values for Education – The Principal of Change

  As in any profession, educators should be able to look back and think, “Why did I do that?”  If you aren’t able to do that, there might not have been much growth.

• A Principal’s Reflections: 10 Strategies to Strengthen Instruction and Learning

  When I think back to my training to become a teacher, there were some reasonably consistent norms. These consisted of sound classroom management, listing the learning objectives, and developing a lesson plan.

• A Notecard Check – A Simple Way to Check for Understanding – Pernille Ripp

  Ask our students what makes them hate reading and many of them will say the work that comes after.  The reading logs, the essays, the taking notes when reading, the post-its, the to-do’s.  Not the act of reading itself.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Create a Screencast Within Padlet

  Back in June I published a video that demonstrated ten types of notes that you can add to Padlet walls. Thanks to Dan Methven I recently learned that there is another new way to add notes to Padlet walls. The new type of note is a screencast video.

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

Sharing Diigo Links and Resources (weekly)

Here are this past week’s list of some cool blog posts:

• How To Bring Instant Calm To Your Classroom – Smart Classroom Management

  One of the biggest causes of misbehavior is excitability. It’s also one of the hardest to fix.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Rubric for Digital Portfolio Assessment

  Next week I am working with a group of teachers to help them start creating digital portfolios with their students. After we decide what we want students to include in their portfolios and the platform for the portfolio we’ll start looking at the as…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Planning a Student Video Project? – Don’t Forget the Storyboards

  Earlier this week I shared details of Next Vista for Learning’s Creative Storm student video contest. One of the rules of that contest is that videos have to be 90 seconds or less. That’s generally a good guideline of classroom video projects too.

• Do We Give A Zero Or 50% For Work Not Turned-In? Here Are Some Useful Commentaries | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  I think I do a pretty good job on grading and am generally successful in having students be less concerned about “points” and more concerned about learning. You can read more about my thoughts on the topic, and those of others whom I respect, at The…

• Free Technology for Teachers: Manufacture Your Future – A Discovery Virtual Field Trip

  Next Friday at 1pm EDT Discovery Education is a hosting a virtual field trip titled Manufacture Your Future. The virtual field trip will take students to the Arconic plant in Texas where they’ll learn about the 3D printing in the context of the aero…

• 150+ Digital Learning Apps Inside 1 Simple App for K-2 Teachers

  The Really Good StuffⓇ Digital Learning Collection has over 150 apps for kindergarten to second-grade classrooms. Recently, I took a tour of this amazing app. Perhaps you’re wondering how more than 150 apps can be inside one? It is possible.

• Comics and Graphic Novels: Honoring All Literacies – Reading By Example

  I was only partially surprised when a librarian mentioned to me that in her school, graphic novels were not seen as quality literature by some of the teachers. This discussion was prompted by a note a former student had written to her recently. Than…

• 5 ways to gamify your class

• What You Should Know About Banned Books Week – GeekMom

  We again find ourselves smack in the middle of the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. Maybe you’ve seen articles about the Top Ten Most Challenged Books.

• Video: “It’s Getting Harder to Spot a Deep Fake Video” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  pixel2013 / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from Bloomberg to The Best Tools & Lessons For Teaching Information Literacy – Help Me Find More:

• Games For Thinkers | Accelerated Learning Foundation

• History Simulation Games For Kids | History Simulator

• The Propaganda Game

  tags:game games think thinking gbl

• Providing Support Versus Enabling – The Principal of Change

  In a workshop this past week, I discussed how it is essential to create conditions for students where students and adults find ways to learn for themselves.

• Beginner’s Guide to Genius Hour: Developing Students’ Passions – Teacher Tech

  A Guest Blog Post by Marcia Carrillo @marciamentor I am passionate about sports! I love to play sports, watch sports, coach sports, analyze sports, and learn new sports or exercises! At what age did I realize this? Probably in 6th grade, when you co…

• Internet Safety For Kids: 7 Tips For Parents Infographic – e-Learning Infographics

  It’s the start of the school year again, so you’ve probably started giving your kid the same old tips – be careful when crossing the street, don’t talk to the strangers, don’t play with scissors, etc.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Frostbite Theater – 87 Science Experiment Video Lessons

  Jefferson Lab’s YouTube channel includes a playlist titled Frostbite Theater. The first time I looked at the playlist a few years ago it had about fifty videos. The playlist has now expanded to 87 videos. The playlist features videos of science demo…

• Google Science Fair Now Open For Submissions | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

  The famous Google Science Fair is now open for submissions (through December 12th). You can read all about it at Google here – and watch the video below.

• Flex like Stretch Armstrong | Mike Kaechele

  This is the third post in a series where I flesh out why the ideal traits of a PBL teacher are important. Check out the links to the rest of the series below the post. I remember as a kid that Stretch Armstrong was definitely the ultimate Christmas …

• Avatar Selection Day: Reflection Roundup pt 1 – Classroom Powerups

  Friday started the process through which my students would select their Avatar types for my classroom. For those interest an overview of the Avatars can be found here – Super Avatar Types Overview.

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Ways to Use Google Slides Besides Making Presentations

  Google Slides has come a long way since the first time that I had students use it a decade ago. Many features have been added in that time. Many of those features make it possible to use Google Slides for more than just making slideshows.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Einstein’s Archives Online

  More than 80,000 of Albert Einstein’s documents and drawings are now available to view for free at Einstein Archives Online. The archives include not only his scientific work but also his images and documents from his travels and thoughts on the wor…

• Control Alt Achieve: Create Your Own Story Cubes with Google Drawings

  Story cubes have long been a popular item to give inspiration for writing. Typically they are regular cubes with a different picture or word on each face. Students can pick a few cubes and then roll them to randomly get elements for a story.

• The Nerdy Teacher: Bring Project Pals into the New School Year

  The template guides students to create an introductory story about the person’s life, timeline, and map out the key events of the person’s life. Digitizing PBL provides an outlet for students to dig deep into their interests.

• What Is Your Teacher Personality Type? Infographic – e-Learning Infographics

  Every teacher approaches their job differently. Some teachers are strict, while others are lenient. Some are spontaneous, while others are more practical. One thing is for sure: there are pros and cons to every teaching style. What teacher personali…

• Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: New Infographic! 8-Step Plan to Finding A Student Internship

  · 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…

• 5 handy tools that combat fake news and create informed citizens | History Tech

  Civic engagement is one of the latest education buzzwords. But for many of you, prepping kids to be engaged, informed, and knowledgeable citizens has always been job one. So it’s good to see the rest of the Ed world climbing on board.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Creative Storm – A Next Vista Video Contest

  Next Vista for Learning is a great place for teachers and students to share short video lessons that they create. I have been recommending the service for almost ten years now.

• Small Disruptions in Text – Pernille Ripp

  I have been so incredibly inspired by the work of the women behind the #DisruptTexts movement.  This movement, started by a group of fearless educators: Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena Germán, Dr. Kimberly N. Parker, and Julia E.

• Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: eNotes

  eNotes is a wonderful site/iOS app for students looking for homework help and much much more.

• Resources from YouCubed | Patty Papers

  Youcubed.org is a free K-12 math resource from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. Many of you are familiar with the Week of Inspirational Math, but here are a few of the other resources you’ll find on the site.

• Free Technology for Teachers: 8 Tools for Making Multimedia Timelines

  Creating timelines has been a go-to activity for history teachers since the beginning of history. When I made timelines as a student and in my first year or two of teaching, timelines were made on paper. Today, there are better ways to have students…

• Free Technology for Teachers: 5 VR Projects for Students

  Google’s VR Tour Creator is one of my favorite media creation tools. Since its launch in May of this year I have shown it to hundreds of teachers in-person and even more in videos and webinars.

• Roberta Memeo – Games for Health Europe

  Graduated with honours in Arts from the University of Florence (Italy) in 1993, e-learning specialist and Project Manager, she has been working for Grifo multimedia since its foundation in 1997.

• The 8 core drives behind great classroom gamification – Classcraft Blog

  With its focus on human motivation, gamification can have a positive impact on our lives, from school to the workplace. Many educators are already using game elements to boost student engagement, track progress, and enhance the learning experience.

• Hey, dumb American question here. Every UK person…

  Where do I fucking start? So, Thatcher was the bane of the working classes, and much of what she did still has repercussions to this day. So, in no particular order, just in the order I remember them, here are some things she did that pissed us off –

• Save the Date/Call for Blogs | CUNY Games Network

  The CUNY Games Network of the City University of New York is excited to announce The CUNY Games Conference 5.0, to be held on January 18, 2018, at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City.

• 10 Ways To Introduce Your Students To Blogging – The Edublogger

  It’s ‘back to school’ season for much of the Northern Hemisphere. Along with setting up classrooms, decorating bulletin boards, and preparing lessons, many educators are also considering their virtual spaces.

• My Vision of a Multi-Disciplinary Academic Center for Video Game-Based Learning. – Simone Bregni, Ph.D.

  tags:gbl ar vr games gaming learning learn

• How to Quickly Create, Send, & Translate a Parent Newsletter – Teacher Reboot Camp

  “At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” – Jane D. Hull A few weeks ago I sent my first parent newsletter to 400+ parents.

• Voice of Witness: Bring the Power of Oral History to Your Classroom | Cult of Pedagogy

  Teaching history and English has gotten complicated. For many, many years, educational publishers produced texts that centered an overwhelmingly white, European experience.

• A Principal’s Reflections: The Pivotal Role Movement Plays in Learning

  “More blood means more energy and oxygen, which makes our brain perform better.” – Justin Rhodes Spending time in schools as a leadership and learning coach has been some of the most gratifying work I have done.

• The Connection Between Innovation and Time – The Principal of Change

  The demands of teachers are seemingly going up while the time frame of our days stays the same.  From my conversations with educators, the “other stuff” that they do not tell you about in college (paperwork, reports, etc.) is getting to be more and …

• FBI, This Week: Education Technologies Could Pose Risks to Students – K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center

  As a follow-up to the recently released public service announcement on the privacy and security issues the FBI has observed with the use of technology in education, on September 21 they also released a brief podcast targeted to parents.

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