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  • Educators
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March is Reading Month: Check out Padlet!

3/2/2020

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Discover.

Padlet is a tool that allows you to create an online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic. You can add images, links, videos and organize your content in a variety of ways. Discover how teachers are using Padlet to support student reading and adult professional development by clicking the buttons below:
Student Book Reports
Student Bookshelves
Student Book Reviews
Student Spring Break Reading
Teacher Book "Shelfies"
Teacher Texts for MakerSpaces
Teacher Resources for Literacy

Learn.

Learn how Padlet works below:

Do.

Want more? The following videos will help you understand all of the features Padlet has to offer:
Instructional Videos
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Adobe Spark for Educators

2/18/2020

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Discover.

Adobe Spark provides free resources that allow teachers and students to easily create and share their work digitally. One tool that I particularly like is the Adobe Spark Video app. It is simple to use and a great tool for narrating a captivating story, presenting a report, explaining a concept, or telling a personal story. Students can choose their own images to add to their videos or select from the thousands that are available. There are also options to add text, music, animation and more. Discover how you might use it in your classroom by watching the short videos below:

Learn.

Adobe offers many free courses for educators. One of these is called Digital Storytelling with Your Class. The program is described as follows:

"This free online course is aimed at all educators looking to get started using digital storytelling to engage students, and learning to tell compelling digital stories with Adobe Spark. The course is self-paced, so you can learn at your own speed, and should take no longer than 3 hours to complete.

No prior knowledge of Adobe tools is required to take part.

Throughout this fun and easy course, you’ll explore:
  • Short video tutorials by expert educators which give you the technical skills required to create your own digital stories with Adobe tools
  • Information on using digital storytelling in your curriculum to produce exciting outcomes for you and your students
  • Basic principles of digital storytelling
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Successful graduates of this course will receive an Adobe digital badge and a certificate accrediting 3 hours of professional development."
Free Digital Storytelling Course

Do.

Looking for inspiration? Check out sample student work and teaching resources.
Questions? Read the Adobe Spark Educator's Guide.
Sample Student Work (scroll to yellow section)
Curriculum - Teaching Resources
Adobe Spark Educator's Guide
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Book Trailers with Scratch

2/12/2020

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Are you curious how you might integrate computer science in your classroom, or are you looking for a unique way to have your students share their favorite books? With technology playing an increasingly important role in every profession, a foundational understanding of computer science is becoming an essential component of student learning. To authentically integrate computer science and literacy, I’m going to teach you how to support your students in using block-based coding to program book trailers. Check out the sample book trailer below, programmed by students using Scratch.

Learn.

To learn how you might tackle this project with students, read the following article linked below:
How-To

Do.

Consider using the following resources:
CS First Storytelling
Scratch Instructional Cards
Coding with Scratch for Beginners
Scratch Challenges
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Featured iPad Tools: Clips

1/21/2020

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Discover.

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Clips is a free, easy-to-use app for creating short videos with text, effects, and graphics.

Features
  • Access photos & video from the camera roll or capture using the app
  • Easily mute audio, adjust the length of your clips, and reorder them
  • Drag and pinch while recording to pan and zoom
  • Add a music track from your library or choose from more than 60 built-in soundtracks that automatically adjust to the length of your video
  • Use Live Titles (captions) to make your words appear on screen as you speak. Words appear at the same rate as your speech and adjust for pauses. Great accessibility feature for all learners
  • Use posters (title and credit slides), filters, emojis, stickers, speech bubbles, and labels
  • Easily change the style of your title or adjust text and punctuation
  • Save videos to camera roll and upload elsewhere, like to Seesaw
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Goals for the Year (click image for link)
Word Study/Spanish
Sequencing/How-To
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Science Experiment (click image for video)
Biography
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Assessment Feedback (click image for video)
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Zoom Clues (click image for link)
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Demonstrate Understanding (click image for video)

Learn.

Click the links below for video tutorials and step-by-step directions.
Video Tutorial
More Video Tutorials
Tips and Tricks

Do.

Open Apple Clips to get started!
More Ideas:
  • All About Me
  • Retell a story
  • Create a book talk or book trailer
  • Give a weather report
  • Present a research project
  • Create a sequenced video about a field trip or neighbor walk
  • Explain the steps in a process
  • Reflect on a project
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Featured iPad Tool: Pages

1/9/2020

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Discover.

"Bring words and ideas to life with Pages — a powerful word processing app that lets you create stunning documents and so much more. Intuitive tools in Pages make it easy to customize fonts and add images, movies, audio clips, shapes, and your own drawings to any document. Create reports, newsletters, posters, and more using a variety of beautiful templates. You can even make interactive books that readers can view on virtually any device." -- Apple

Discover more in the quick tutorial below:

Learn.

Learn how to use Pages by reading Pages for iPad. You can access and download the text in Apple Books on your iPad.
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Apple Book: Pages for iPad

Do.

Earn your certification as an Apple Teacher for iPads! The certification is free and easy to tackle, one badge at a time. To learn more about Pages specifically, follow the link by clicking below:
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Featured iPad Tool: Apple Classroom

1/6/2020

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Apple Classroom is a management tool that allows a teacher to:
  • view all student iPad screens from his/her own iPad
  • lock or mute student screens
  • navigate groups of students/individual students/or the whole class to certain apps or websites
  • lock students into specific apps, websites, or documents
  • share and receive documents and more

Discover how Apple Classroom can improve your classroom teaching by watching the quick guided tour below: 

Learn

Learn the specifics by viewing the PDFs linked below:
Access your class (Homeroom teachers)
Create a Class (Specialists and Support Teachers)
Organize your class into groups
View student screens
Mute sound or lock student screen
Launch apps on student iPads or lock iPads
Navigate student iPads to specific content (i.e. a website)
Share documents (i.e. PDFs, worksheets, presentations)
Receive documents from students
Project student work on big screen
View end of class summary

Do

Earn your certification as an Apple Teacher for iPads! The certification is free and easy to tackle, one badge at a time. To learn more about Apple Classroom specifically, check out the Productivity with iPad badge, linked below.
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Hour of Code

11/18/2019

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With technology changing every industry on the planet, computing knowledge has become part of a well-rounded skill set. But fewer than half of all schools teach computer science! Good news is, we’re on our way to change this. If you heard about the Hour of Code last year, you might know it made history. 100 million students have now discovered how accessible and fun computer science can be by doing just one Hour of Code.
​
The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Discover how to run an Hour of Code below.

Learn

To make implementation easy for you and fun for your students, I've curated resources for art, music, PE, and Young5s - 12th grade! Learn more by reading the short description of the activity that corresponds to your grade or subject area below and clicking the image to the right to access the resource.
Young 5s - Kindergarten 

Code Monkey Jr. is a free app designed for students 4-6 years old. Young coders will help a monkey collect bananas and unlock a treasure chest by counting and using arrows to control his movements. Click the app icon to the right for teacher info.
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1st - 2nd
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Scratch Jr. is a great app for storytelling and authentically weaves into classroom curriculum. In this activity, students will learn how to create a scene for a story that has a night sky with twinkling stars. Click the image to the right for teacher info.
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3rd - 4th

​Dance Party is web-based and easily accessible on the iPad by opening hourofcode.com/danceparty in a browser. Students will use drag-and-drop coding blocks to program characters to dance to popular songs. Headphones are highly recommended!
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5th - 6th

Lightbot: Code Hour is a free app that starts out simple and gets trickier. In this programming puzzle game, students will use game mechanics, logic, and problem-solving to light up tiles.
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7th - 8th
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Don't Drop the Phone is an entertaining Hopscotch activity that teaches students about sequencing and loops. A teacher lesson plan and 14 minute student video were created to seamlessly guide students. Download the free app, Hopscotch, today!
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High School

In this Hour of Code activity, students will be introduced to JavaScript through step-by-step video tutorials. They will practice newly learned concepts and apply their  understandings to a final creative project. Students will type hourofcode.com/khan in a browser. 
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Art

KANO Art Playground is web-based but easily accessible on the iPad. Students are provided 8 art challenges that use simple drag and drop coding blocks. Students type hourofcode.com/kanoart in a browser.
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PE
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You won't need access to iPads for this Hour of Code activity. There is a slideshow with dance moves already created and a recommended school-appropriate Spotify playlist. It's computer science, without a computer and gets you groovin'!
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Music

Students will visit codehs.com/hoc_music and watch video tutorials to learn how computer science relates to music. Students will choose various instruments and adjust the tempo as they create musical loops and share their beats.
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Do

Run an Hour of Code with your students from December 9th - 13th! Want an extra hand? I would love to come in and support you and your students. If that would be helpful, book time with me at your school. Please check your email for more information.

Print participation certificates for your students and share about Hour of Code in your class newsletters:
Next steps and FAQ
Newsletter Blurbs
Participation Certificates
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The Great Thanksgiving Listen

11/5/2019

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The Great Thanksgiving Listen is an initiative that is encouraging and empowering students to create an oral history of the United States by recording interviews with their elders using the free Story Corps app. And while the program requires students be over 13 to publish their work using this specific app, the curricular ideas (check out the toolkit at the bottom of this page) can be modified and used by students of all ages. Discover more in this quick 1 minute video.

Learn.

The best way to learn more about this movement is to listen to some the heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking, stories. Below is a video of one animated story, as well as a link to many of the stories Story Corps has captured over the years. You can sort the stories by collection (i.e. justice, military, parenthood, etc.), date, and more.
Hear More Stories

Do.

Check out the toolkit and podcast below. There are many great resources that you can put to use right away.
Teacher Toolkit
Podcast
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Global Learning Resources

10/28/2019

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Do you want your students to connect with students outside the four walls of their classroom? Consider the value in a global learning community. Discover these amazing resources by watching the following brief introductory videos. When one of the programs sparks your interest and you want to learn more about it, check out the section below these videos to learn how to move forward and engage globally.
Mystery Skype:
Pen Pal Schools:
iEARN:
Google Hangouts - Educator Community:
Empatico:

Learn.

Learn more about using these tools to connect globally by watching the  following instructional videos.
Get Started with Mystery Skype:
Connect with PenPals Globally:
Learn together with iEARN:
Collaborate with Google+ Communities:
Use Curriculum to Connect with Empatico:​

Do.

Get started! Follow the links below to  connect globally with another classroom.
Mystery Skype
Google Hangout - Educator Community
Pen Pal Schools
iearn
Empatico (Elementary)
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Think Up App

10/15/2019

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Have you had a student in your class who has had difficulty completing assignments on time? Maybe you've had a student who performs well in class but poorly on assessments, or one with a consistently negative attitude, or someone who has had difficulty making friends. What if that child could record himself/herself repeating positive affirmations and revisit the recordings when feeling distressed? ThinkUp is a free app created to support kids and adults alike in changing their mindset. Discover ThinkUp in my sample below:

Learn.

Learn how to use ThinkUp by viewing the video tutorial below:

Do.

ThinkUp is a free app for iOS and Android. Begin enjoying it today!
Download ThinkUp
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