November, 2016

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10 Projects to Kickstart Hour of Code

Ask a Tech Teacher

Coding–that geeky subject that confounds students and frightens teachers. Yet, kids who can code are better at logical thinking and problem solving, more independent and self-assured, and more likely to find a job when they graduate. In fact, according to Computer Science Education , by 2020 , there will be 1.4 million coding jobs and only 400,000 applicants.

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10 Awesome Storybook Apps to Develop Your Kids Love for Reading

Educators Technology

November 16, 2016 Following our post on some of the best eBook libraries for kids, we curated for you this collection of iPad apps featuring 10 popular storybooks for young readers. Teachers and.read more.

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Simple and Rube Goldberg Machines: A Maker Education, STEAM Lesson

User Generated Education

Recently I facilitated a simple machines leading into Rube Goldberg machines lesson with my gifted elementary students. As I’ve discussed in past blog posts, I use several criteria to guide my lesson design: Instructional challenges are hands-on and naturally engaging for learners. There is a game-like atmosphere. There are elements of play, leveling up, and a sense of mastery or achievement during the instructional activities.

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This Hack Will Help You Deliver Killer Presentations

The Innovative Educator

I had the opportunity to attend #GovTechLive and listen to Anthony Huey ( @AnthonyHuey ) share some ideas about "Communicating the right way." He started his presentation by sharing what could happen if you wing it. While you may be lucky enough to not have such an experience, there is a reason that speaking to an audience is one of the greatest fears of humankind.

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Can Brain Science Actually Help Make Your Training & Teaching Stick?

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

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The Assessment-Grading App That Changed My Classroom

Science Teaching Junkie

For years, I have been using data to drive my instruction. Tests (summative assessments) were entered into a program (Eduphoria) that aggregated the data for me and I used it religiously to make adjustments in my teaching and lesson planning. This is how I discovered the concepts that my students were understanding, not understanding, and what teaching strategies and methods were most effective.

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Hour of Code Website and App Suggestions for K-8

Ask a Tech Teacher

Here are ideas of apps and websites that teachers in my PLN used successfully in the past during Hour of Code: Kindergarten. Start kindergartners with problem solving. If they love Legos, they’ll love coding. BotLogic –great for Kindergarten and youngers. Code –learn to code, for students. How to train your robot –a lesson plan from Dr. Techniko. Kodable- -great for youngers–learn to code before you can read.

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5 Great eBook Libraries for Kids

Educators Technology

November 15, 2016 Looking for some good places where you can search for and find children's books? The list below has you covered. These are some popular eBook libraries where parents and.read more.

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What are the characteristics of high performing schools?

User Generated Education

I am the unique position of having several types of education jobs. I teach online graduate courses in educational technology to in-service teachers. I am a cohort facilitator for student teachers; and I teach part-time gifted elementary students at two different elementary schools that serve Kindergarten through 6th grade students. Out of the 16 elementary schools in my town, these two schools have some of the lowest end-of-year standardized test scores in the entire district; are composed of 8

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Getting Off to A Good Start w/ #EdTech: Consideration 2

The Innovative Educator

You understand the important role technology plays in teaching and learning but want to make sure you are getting off to a good start. Whether you have been integrating tech for a while or you’re just getting started, it’s essential to ensure you have the foundation for success in your school or classroom. To do this, you must ensure your students are digitally literate and they understand what it means to be good citizen not only online, but also, f2f.

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Harnessing The Power Of Math Manipulatives

Mathematics, a subject steeped in abstract concepts, often poses challenges to students, especially those in grades 5-10. But imagine a bridge that transformed this intricate maze into an interactive adventure.

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Storyboard That for Thanksgiving

Technology Tidbits

Storyboard That the wonderful resource that educators everywhere are using for a variety of educational purposes (i.e. timelines, digital storytelling, project based learning, etc), has just release their latest bundle for Thanksgiving. These activities cover a wide range of topics such as story starters, holiday cards, and more. Storyboard That is an excellent learning tool w/ educational portal, where teachers can manage, track, and assess student accounts in a safe environment.

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STEMx member feature: The Utah STEM Action Center

STEMx

The. Utah STEM Action Center. , located in Salt Lake City, recently joined the STEMx multi-state network. Earlier this year, we published a story about their. annual hands-on learning event called the Utah STEM Fest. To learn about the Center, its mission and plans, we contacted its director, Tami Goetz, who shared the following: Q: Tell us about the STEM Action Center in Utah, its history and the work that it’s doing.

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Hour of Code–What is it?

Ask a Tech Teacher

Coding–that mystical geeky subject that confounds students and teachers alike. Confess, when you think of coding, you see: …when you should see. December 5-11, Computer Science Education will host the Hour Of Code–a one-hour introduction to coding, programming, and why students should love it. It’s designed to demystify “code” and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, and an innovator.

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2 Great Professional Development Opportunities for Hour of Code

Ask a Tech Teacher

Two great professional development presentations from Nepris : View this email in your browser. Why should kids have all the fun? This year, we’re offering two awesome industry chats meant exclusively for teachers. SE3D Corporation CEO Mayasari Lim helps you think about how you could integrate 3D printing into your science curriculum, and Amjad Masad of Repl.it introduces a simple, free platform that will save you time and help your students develop their coding skills. .

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Downloadable Design Briefs for an Integrative STEM Curriculum

These easy-to-use design briefs outline student objectives, challenges, and materials needed to complete each 30-minute to 4-hour lesson. ITEEA’s Integrative STEM curriculum, Engineering byDesign, includes many more standards driven hands-on activities just like these!

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8 Reasons Why Students Should Create Videos and 15 Webtools to Do That

Ask a Tech Teacher

For decades, teachers have used videos in the classroom to share information. They communicate a message with audio, visual, motion, color, and spatial details, making videos much more effective than traditional approaches like reading from a text, lecturing, or showing a slideshow. As a result, students retain more information, understand concepts more rapidly, are more enthusiastic about what they are learning, and make new connections between curriculum topics and the world outside the classr

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How to Teach Social Media Safety

Ask a Tech Teacher

All teachers agree that digital citizenship is essential knowledge for students whether they’re going onto college or a career, yet when I ask who in their school teaches it, they always shrug. Someone, but not them… Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Amy Williams, has four bottom line issues that any teacher can cover and as many as possible at each grade level should: Educators have always had the challenging task of teaching our children reading, writing and arithmetic, among many ot

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15 Good Replacements for ScreenChomp

Ask a Tech Teacher

For years, TechSmith’s ScreenChomp app has been my go-to resource for whiteboard drawings, screencasts, and for an uncluttered online art platform for students using iPads. ScreenChomp did a masterful job of making everything needed for each of these activities intuitive even for young users. For older students, ScreenChomp made it easy to provide personalized feedback by writing or recording comments directly onto their digital work and then sharing it back to them.

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18 Thanksgiving Sites and Apps and 4 Projects for the Holiday

Ask a Tech Teacher

Need a few websites and apps to fill in sponge time? Here are Thanksgiving websites that will keep students busy and still teach them: Canadian Thanksgiving. Online/Offline Thanksgiving activities. Plimoth Plantation –a field trip of a Pilgrim’s life. Included on this real-life site is a video of the Pilgrim’s crossing to the New World. Starfall–Silly Turkey.

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A Holiday Flier and Greeting Card in Publisher

Ask a Tech Teacher

Two holiday projects for grades 2-8–for Thanksgiving or Christmas–in the desktop publishing tool of your choice: A flier to celebrate a holiday event. A greeting card to spread wishes for a happy holiday season. Greeting cards are easy enough for second graders–even early readers. Using MS Publisher, pick a template, add a picture to personalize, add their name–and they’re done.

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World Typeathon Starts Monday–Join in!

Ask a Tech Teacher

There’s something exciting going on over at Typing Tournament Online : The World Typeathon. This is a free event and allows students to pit their skills against typists from around the planet. Here are the details: When? Round 2 starts Monday Nov 14th 2016 and ends Sunday Dec 18th 2016. For the full-time table click here. Everyone can participate at any time.

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12 Websites that Explain Elections

Ask a Tech Teacher

I published this article in early October, but am republishing it as our American elections are upon us. I got a lot of good feedback from readers, as well as a few new sites, so the collection has increased from 8 to 12: In about half the world’s nations–such as those ruled by socialism, communism, dictators, and autocracies–law and order are decided by government agencies, often people placed in power by those already in power.

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169 Tech Tips–Two Great Chromebook Shortkeys

Ask a Tech Teacher

In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education. Today’s tip: #121–Chromebook Caps Lock and #122–Chromebook Delete Key.

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169 Tech Tip #128–Top 10 Chromebook Shortkeys

Ask a Tech Teacher

In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to so many daily tech-infused education. Today’s tip #128–Top Ten Chromebook Shortkeys.

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The Power of Symbols–What does the word ‘Turkey’ mean?

Ask a Tech Teacher

Last year, I did a poll on the meaning of the word ‘turkey’ This was to demonstrate how powerful symbols are to your students and do so with an authentic use of technology to support discussion on math, language standards, and the holidays. As a summation to your discussion with students on symbols, idiomatic expressions, geography, farms, or another topic, post this on your Smartscreen.

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Subscriber Special: November

Ask a Tech Teacher

Every month, subscribers to Ask a Tech Teacher get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching. November 1st-15th: when you spend $25 or more on Structured Learning , get a free copy of the. Hour of Code bundle. Click to view slideshow. When you spend $50 or more on Structured Learning , get a free copy of the. Hour of Code Bundle and the STEM Bundle.

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Happy Thanksgiving Week to All!

Ask a Tech Teacher

I’m taking next week off. I’ll be preparing for my daughter’s holiday visit from her home in DC and my son who’s visiting from El Paso TX. I am so excited to see both of them! I’ll be back November 28th. Any emergencies–drop me a line at askatechteacher@gmail.com. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years.

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Hour of Code–Is it the right choice?

Ask a Tech Teacher

I took a Classroom 2.0 Live webinar last year on rolling out the Hour of Code in the classroom. There were so many great things about that webinar, but one I’ll share today is why teachers DON’T participate in Hour of Code. Here are what the webinar participants said: How about you? Why are you NOT doing Hour of Code? Stay tuned for these Hour of Code articles on how to present coding in your classroom: Hour of Code: What is it?

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Today we Honor Veterans

Ask a Tech Teacher

In the USA, Veterans Day annually falls on November 11. This day is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice, which ended the World War I hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany in 1918. Veterans are thanked for their services to the United States on Veterans Day. Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum , K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curric

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Role of Tech in Ed: Consideration #1

The Innovative Educator

Innovative educators know how to move technology from being viewed as a weapon of mass distraction to being used as a tool of engagement, but this isn’t intuitive for everyone. Tech is a powerful teaching and learning tool that has the ability to transform education. Not sure how to begin? Start with these ideas of ways to use technology to support teaching and learning.

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The 3 Most Popular Posts Innovative Educators Are Reading

The Innovative Educator

If you haven’t been keeping up with The Innovative Educator, don’t worry. That’s what this wrap up is for. Here are the three hottest posts that you don’t want to miss! Taking the top spot for the first time is Guidelines for Setting Up a School Facebook Page. The post explains how to get started in setting up a Facebook Page and includes screenshots and advice from Darlynn Alfalla who shares the settings she used for her school page.

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Strengthen School Culture & Community: #NYCSchoolsTechChat - 11/3

The Innovative Educator

Learn innovative ideas for building and strengthening school culture and community during our seventh monthly #NYCSchoolsTechChat taking place tomorrow, Thursday, November 3rd at 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time. During this chat we will have special guest. Jordan Pedraza (@JordanPedraza) at ( @RemindHQ ). You can read more about Jordan in her LinkedIn profile.

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Paperscorer

Technology Tidbits

Paperscorer is a fantastic new mobile (iOS/Android, or Chrome plug-in) app that allows educators and students to assess their learning in real-time. The way this works is a teacher creates an assessment/quiz in Google Forms/Documents and then create and print out a unique answer form/bubble sheet for each student. The student then uses those forms to answer the question and take the assessment/quiz.