Check out this great piece about how technology and mindfulness can be used together to improve health and well-being. Deepak Chopra has a prescription for what ails technology.
Deepak Chopra on Technology and Mindfulness
categories: Uncategorized
Audio in Canvas
categories: Canvas
Did you know students can leave audio and video responses in Canvas? This is an excellent way to have students practice their oral language development or use their target world language. Instructions for how to set up an audio assignment here and student instructions here. This is also great practice for the WIDA exam. Give it a try!
GIF Maker
categories: GIF
Fun with GIFs! Want to make your own GIF? http://gifmaker.me/ is easy to use! Just upload a few images and then set your own speed and download.
Reorder Classes in Your Canvas Dashboard
categories: Canvas
Did you know that now you can reorder your courses on the Canvas dashboard? It is as easy as drag-and-drop to put the cards in an order that is most useful for you! You can also click on the three dots in the corner of each course card and move the card to the top, bottom, or one ahead or one behind. So helpful!!
GWMS #HourOfCode a Success!
Thank you to all who participated in GWMS #HourOfCode last week (or have a lesson planned in the next few weeks! It was great to see students engaged with making their own games, simulations and dance parties! Thank you for Ms. Azoulay, Mr. Belzer, Ms. Breslin, Ms. Boampong, Ms. Bucchiere, Ms Conord, Ms. Dickey, Ms. Eber, Ms. Farrell, Ms. Haisfield, Ms. Lott, Ms. Owens, Ms. Snead, Ms. Tutuska and Mr. Yancy for letting us code with your students. It is not too late to try coding in your class! We have loads of lessons that reinforce your content while letting students learn important computational thinking skills. Just reach out!
GW Hour of Code is coming!!
What is Hour of Code? Next week, December 3-7 is Computer Science Education Week – more popularly known as Hour Of Code! Learning how to code is a skill that students will need as they enter the workforce. There are more computer science jobs available than people that can fill them! This week is a great opportunity to see how coding can be used in any subject area to engage students and enhance your curriculum.
What can I do in my classroom? Not sure what coding is or how to bring it into your classroom? We are here to help! We have prepared a list of activities for you to try: Ideas for Coding in Classroom. Want us to come do a lesson with your students? Email us right away to reserve a day and time. The first 5 teachers that sign up get a Code.Org t-shirt!
How can students learn about Hour of Code? In addition to classroom lesson ideas, advisory lessons next week will focus on coding. Each day there will be a short video with a recommended website where students can learn more about coding. In addition to t-shirts for the first 5 teachers that sign up to co-teach a coding lesson with Kyle and Jim, please also submit the names of students that participate in the Hour of Code for raffle to give away 5 Code.Org hats. This can be a class list (if all your students participate) or the names of individual students that try out coding on their own next week. Please submit student names here: Hour of Code Student Raffle
How else can student participate in Hour of Code? Kyle and Jim will make guest appearances at different lunches with “unplugged” coding activities. Students will make bracelets using binary code, learn about If.. Then… statements playing a card game and other fun, hands-on, screen-free activities.
What can I do beyond the Hour of Code? Coding in classrooms doesn’t need to be limited to one week! Reach out to Kyle and Jim about using our robots in your class or to request a guest speaker to talk about how coding is used in the workplace or to plan a 3D printing lesson with your classes. Our students deserve exposure to coding!!
Create Webquest
categories: Webquest
This great website suggestion comes to us from Ms. Lowry – thanks Ms. Lowry!! Ms. Lowry uses a website called Create WebQuest. This simple, easy-to-use site, allows you to create a webquest for your students to complete. Not familiar with WebQuests? They are student-centered, task-oriented tasks that use websites and digital tools and resources for completion.
Teacher Pages in Clever
categories: Clever
Did you know that you can create your own Teacher Page in Clever? If there are certain apps in Clever that you need your students to go to regularly, you can create a Clever Teacher Page. For more information check out the Clever Teacher Portal instructions.
Securly Parent Portal
categories: Chromebooks
ACPS has purchased a new program called Securly Parent Portal that allows parents to monitor their child’s online activity outside of school. Parents will be getting a letter explaining this new program in the mail this week. Follow-up emails will be sent on November 26th which will include username and password information. There are no necessary actions on your part but we wanted to let you know about it in case parents or students mention it to you. If you are interested in knowing more please visit: https://www.acps.k12.va.us/Page/2355
Online Kagan Tools
categories: Kagan
Random student selectors, seating chart makers and group creator tools can be found here.
Additional timer options:
http://timer.onlineclock.net/
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/