Check out this Tech & Learning blog post by David Kapuler. He highlights the top ten teacher tech tools that are currently "all the buzz!" Some of these you may already use, but if not, I know you'll want to check them out. Enjoy! |
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I wanted to share this upcoming Discovery Education event with you. It presents an excellent opportunity to integrate science, social studies, and global awareness in meaningful ways with your students. There are events designed for K-3 students and for 4-8 students, so be sure to register for the appropriate event. You can also use Google Earth to visit the town of Churchill in Manitoba, Canada. Churchill is one of the best places on Earth to view the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), so you may consider using the DE resources linked below to explore this incredible natural phenomenon. (Note: You must be signed into NCEdCloud and access Discovery Education for the links in this email to work). DE Content and Related Resources to support this event: K-5 DE Content on the Northern Lights Additional resources, lesson plans, and activities for the Tundra Live Event Polar Bears International Virtual Field Trip - Part One (archived) Polar Bears International Virtual Field Trip - Part Two (archived) Polar Bears International Virtual Field Trip - Part Three (archived) Polar Bears: A Close Read (TpT Free Download) A Polar Bear Grows Up (ReadWorks.org) Polar Bears and the Arctic (Guide for Educators from climateclassroomkids.org) - Complete with information, lesson plans, and student activities and pages Spotlight on Strategy (SOS) Highlight: ABC Summary - View on Discovery Ed or PDF Events for "Live from the Tundra Virtual Experience"Classroom Collaborative ProjectOur classroom collaborative projects use a unique, web-based educational platform, GlobalLab, to enable students, teachers, and learners of all ages to pose questions and together find answers. Enhance your experience of the Tundra Connections virtual experience by participating in our collaborative project and connect with classrooms around the world.
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SciShow Kids has just uploaded a Halloween-inspired playlist of science videos for kids. This YouTube playlist includes the following videos:
Last year, I assisted several teachers with using Google Forms for tests and quizzes. We used the Flubaroo Add-On to immediately grade the assessment and communicate results with students via email. Each teacher was blown away by the capability of these tools. Over the summer, as I was exploring the format of the new Google Forms, I noticed that it had an added quizzing feature for classroom use. I didn't have an opportunity to try it out, but wondered if it would eliminate the need for using the Flubaroo Add-On. Today, I stumbled upon a couple of blog post by Richard Byrne of Free Tech for Teachers that helped answer some of my questions. In July, he posted an article on Flubaroo Compared to the New Google Forms Auto-Grading Feature. By reading, I learned that the New Google Forms does make it easier than ever to turn forms into quizzes and automatically grade them without the use of a second party add-on. However, I also read that the features offered through Flubaroo are currently more robust. Richard Byrne also created several video tutorials highlighting some Flubaroo features that are often overlooked: printing grade reports for students and parents, accepting multiple correct responses, and enabling automatic grading and grade sharing. I've embedded these tutorial videos below. You might also be interested in how Flubaroo allows you to award extra or partial credit on quizzes. I would LOVE to help you and your team get started with using these tools with your students! If you're interested, please let me know so we can schedule a time!
Check out Richard Byrne's recent NCTIES presentation to discover a wealth of ed tech resources for teaching, learning, exploring, creating, managing, assessing, and collaborating.
On March 2nd, Discovery Education will host a live online event to celebrate Read Across America 2016. Award-winning authors and illustrators, Peter H. and Paul A. Reynolds, will be participating in a live read aloud of their book, Going Places. As part of the 30-minute event, FableVision Studios will take you behind-the-scenes of their newest projects, share their creative process, and answer student questions. What a fabulous way to celebrate the love of reading! Click here for classroom activities to use before, during, and after viewing the event. Use this Padlet or Twitter to post class reflections and photos and connect with other classrooms. Also, download and use these free reproducible activities from FableVision that complement the book! Enjoy the celebration!
Check out this interactive flash animation by Cary and Michael Huang to explore the scale of the universe and objects within it. Use the scroll bar along the bottom (or the wheel on your mouse) to zoom into the tiniest, microscopic organisms known to man or zoom out to view the largest bodies in our galaxy and beyond. Click on objects within the interactive to learn more about them. For more lessons and videos on this topic, check out Richard Byrne's post entitled, "How Big is the Sun? - And Five Other Lessons on the Size of the Universe" from Free Tech for Teachers. Most every time we launch a Google search, the number of returned results most likely reaches well into the millions. It takes a great deal of time to comb the web and search out the specific resources we need, and finding excellent resources usually means sifting through lots of mediocre ones first. Kelly Walsh, when writing for EmergingEdTech, states that "knowing how to efficiently find information on the Web is a vital element of today’s digital literacy requirements for our students, and for us as educators and professionals." Check out his article to learn search tips that will help your students search like a boss!
In a recent blog post on Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne highlights two excellent online video tools. For teachers who assign videos for homework or classwork, and especially those who are applying flipped or blended classroom models to their instruction, these tools could definitely prove to be valuable. Video Notes allows the creator to save and share synchronized notes about videos. Notes could include information to highlight or questions for students to answer and are hyperlinked to the part of the video that relates to the note. Video Notes also integrates seamlessly with Google Drive accounts. Vialogues enables teachers to invite users to a discussion about videos. Comments, surveys, and questions may be also be added to the video discussion, and time stamps provide a direct link to the relevant video content. View Byrne's tutorial videos below to see these sites in action and use the links above to start using these resources in your classroom!
Crash Course Kids is a YouTube channel devoted to topics related to grade school science. Started in February 2015, the content is fresh, current, and engaging. The creators release two short videos a week (on Tuesday and Thursday) and even provide teachers with information about the video and the standards it covers. This is definitely a channel you'll want to subscribe to and share with your students! Below, I've included the channel preview and their first video, "Gotta Eat!" I've also included both of their videos from last week that focus on living things, adaptations, climate, and the food chain. To learn more, visit the home page of this channel, peruse all their videos in the order in which they were uploaded, or explore their videos by topic (playlists). You may also want to subscribe to the channel to bookmark it in your YouTube menu and receive updates when new content is available.
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