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A collection of sites for maths teachers made by a maths teacher.

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Show Me - an app to use for flipped lessons

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Show Me - an app to use for flipped lessons

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ShowMe is an open online learning community where anyone can learn and teach any topic. Our iPad app lets you easily create and share video lessons.

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Station Rotation Model in Action (Video)

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Station Rotation Model in Action (Video) In a previous blog post titled "Create Small Learning Communities with the Station Rotation Model," I described many of the reasons I use the Station Rotation Model in my secondary classroom.

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Video explaining how to set up a Hyperdoc using Google Docs

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Hey, y'all!

© Shake Up Learning 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com.

[Tweet "Kasey's #ISTE18 Presentations and Resources #shakeuplearning #edtech #gsuiteedu"]

YOU are invited to join the Shake Up Learning Summer Book Study! I am #superexcited to launch a super fun summer book study of my new book, Shake Up Learning: Practical Ideas to Move Learning From Static to Dynamic.

The Shake Up Learning book was designed for book studies! I couldn't just write a paper book. I had to make it an interactive experience and give you extra resources to go deeper and make reading the book a dynamic learning experience.

It starts on July 5th! Learn more here.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Technology is not a magic solution for education. It is an opportunity! An opportunity to shake things up, to connect and grow, and to create dynamic learning experiences for our students!

Is the learning in your classroom static or dynamic? Does your classroom offer one and done types of learning activities, or does the learning grow, inspire, and evolve throughout the year and beyond? With digital tools that are available 24/7, the learning doesn't have to stop when the bell rings, or when the worksheet is turned in. The learning takes on a life of its own; it becomes dynamic.

In this book, you will learn practical strategies to help move your classroom from static teaching to dynamic learning. This book will guide you through the entire process, from purposeful planning to fearless implementation, with helpful tips and tricks along the way. Be dynamic and shake up learning in your classroom this year.

Shake Up Learning QUICKSTART GUIDE

Join the email list to get the latest information about the Shake Up Learning Book AND Get the FREE 20-Page Quickstart Guide that will help you Shake Up Learning in your classroom this year!

The Dynamic Learning Workshop
(Online Course)

About Kasey Bell

Kasey Bell is part sparkling smile, part witty personality and a whole heap of passion as big as a Texas-go big or go home, y'all! She is a disruptor of the boring. An engaging, innovative, from the heart sharer who inspires educators while transforming their teaching with original, timely and use-tomorrow ideas for student choice, differentiation, and technology integration. Whether it is learning from home through online courses, professional development, conference workshops or as a keynote speaker Kasey is a relentless innovator of ideas and a devoted transformer of classrooms and teaching. Through teacher empowering publications and award-winning educational resources at ShakeUpLearning.com, learner-driven workshops and presentations and co-hosting Google Teacher Tribe weekly podcast, Kasey proves why we should never settle for the boring when it comes to bringing out the very best in our students, and we should always strive to Shake Up Learning!

Co-host of The Google Teacher Tribe Podcast

Author of Shake Up Learning and The Teacher's Guide to Google Classroom

Google Certified Innovator

Google Certified Trainer

Amazon Education Thought Leader

Digital Innovation in Learning Award Winner in "Sharing is Caring"

Must Read EdTech Blog

Edublog Awards Finalist

Connect with Shake Up Learning

Email me: Kasey[AT]ShakeUpLearning.com

Shake Up Learning QUICKSTART GUIDE

Join the email list to get the latest information about the Shake Up Learning Book AND Get the FREE 20-Page Quickstart Guide that will help you Shake Up Learning in your classroom this year!

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SNEAK PEEK: Kasey's 2018 ISTE Presentations!

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Hey, y'all! © Shake Up Learning 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com.

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Director, Google for Education

6/26/18 Update: Don't forget to check out our deep dives into the exciting Classroom and Chromebook news we shared this week.

On the first day of ISTE, Google for Education gives to you: 12 updates to help teachers save time and spark creativity in their students. By releasing educators of time-consuming tasks, these new features and tools will enhance teachers' ability to organize courses, increase collaboration with students, and unleash creativity in the classroom. Stay tuned for a deeper look at some of these announcements throughout this week.

1. Locked mode in Quizzes in Google Forms
To keep students focused and distraction-free during tests and quizzes, we're launching locked mode in Google Forms this fall. Available on managed Chromebooks, locked mode prevents students from navigating away from the Quiz until they submit their answers. Teachers will be able to enable locked mode with a simple checkbox, giving them full control over assessments.

2. Now Classroom works like you do
We're improving Classroom to give teachers more control over how they organize everything from assignments to class rosters. It's the same Classroom that educators know, with new pages designed to help teachers and students find what they need faster than ever.

This fall, we're introducing the Classwork page, which lets teachers organize assignments and questions by grouping them into modules and units. Teachers will be able to create and manage assignments and questions from the Classwork page. This gives class content its own space in Classroom, and allows the Stream to be used for class conversation.

We're also introducing a People page to give teachers a unified place to manage students, co-teachers and guardians, and a new Settings page where teachers can add a class description, change the course code, and control overall Classroom settings.

3. Create Quizzes from Classroom
Soon, teachers will be able to create and assign a Forms Quiz directly from Classroom-saving educators time and streamlining the assignment process. Quizzes lets teachers create questions, grade by question or by student, auto grade checkbox and multiple choice grid questions, and include feedback to answers for a personalized learning experience. And teachers can import grades from Quizzes right back into Classroom.

4. Chromebooks, now in tablet form
The Acer Chromebook Tab 10, the first tablet running the same reliable operating system as Chromebooks, is now available. Teachers told us they wanted the same speed, ease of use, manageability, shareability, security and affordability that they're used to with Chromebooks-but in a lightweight, durable tablet. With built-in stylus, cameras on both sides, ultra-fast USB-C charging, a wide array of apps, Expeditions VR, and Expeditions AR this fall, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 brings learning to life.

5. The Chromebook stylus by STAEDTLER
We've partnered with STAEDTLER to create a stylus that's useful for both teachers and students-and doesn't break the bank. This stylus requires no pairing or charging, and is designed with affordability in mind. Using the stylus, educators can give visual feedback in Classroom, as well as assign PDF worksheets that students can annotate by hand. The STAEDTLER Noris digital for Chromebook works with a wide array of apps and will be available later this summer.

6. Get your class jamming with Jamboard
Jamboard, the interactive whiteboard, is coming to the classroom with new educational pricing and the free companion app. The app works with or without a Jamboard unit, and runs on all touch and mobile devices, including convertible Chromebooks supporting Android Apps and the Acer Chromebook Tab 10.

7. Learning with virtual reality
Students and educators have been daydreaming about making their own virtual reality experiences, and now that's possible with Tour Creator. This new VR tool lets anyone easily create virtual reality tours using footage from 360° cameras or the huge library of existing Street View content and view their tours on Poly. You can customize your tour using templates, ambient audio, and narration support to help teacher and students craft the perfect tour. And because Tour Creator is a web-based application, anyone can use it to create VR experiences-no prior knowledge or experience necessary.

8. Making math with Google Earth
Ever wonder how far your hometown is from the North Pole? Or if the Forbidden City is bigger than the Palace of Versailles? Starting today, educators can make their math lesson a bit more fun by asking students to measure distances between cities or the area of historical sites-right in Google Earth. The new Measure Tool is now available on Chrome today, on Android this week and coming soon to iOS. We're also adding new teacher-authored stories to Google Earth, like Buildings Inspired by Nature, Modern Human Migration and Blue Gold. Our Lakes. Our Lives., to help students understand the wider world around them.

9. Introducing the Teacher Center
Just in time to check off professional development from summertime bucket lists, we're unveiling our new Teacher Center. Formerly called the Training Center, this updated hub is a one-stop-shop for training materials, resources, certifications and communities of educators. Teachers can search Google's library of resources to find exactly what they need, when they need it.

10. CS First curriculum updates
For teachers looking for new Computer Science (CS) curriculum for the upcoming school year, our CS First curriculum is completely free and now aligned with ISTE and CSTA standards. Video lessons guide students in grades 4-8 through engaging activities where they both learn and practice basic computer science principles across themes such as art, music and fashion. Teachers don't need to have any CS education or experience to teach CS First, as the curriculum includes lesson plans and supporting materials that are free and available to anyone.

11. New lessons in Applied Digital Skills
Applied Digital Skills is a free, project-based curriculum that includes video lessons designed to teach students the digital skills they'll need for the future. We've added brand new units for middle and high school students that teach practical skills like how to research colleges or create a resume in Google Docs. The full curriculum includes several modular lessons that are flexible enough to use in just one class period, or across an entire semester, and can now be assigned directly from Classroom.

12. Be Internet Awesome: Program updates and two new languages
Be Internet Awesome helps kids learn how to be safe, confident explorers of the online world. Based on a ton of helpful feedback we've received from educators, we're excited to share expansions to our educator curriculum, an updated Interland game that better reinforces our lessons, and new resources for educators and parents, including interactive slides built with Pear Deck. Be Internet Awesome is also now available in two new languages-Spanish and Portuguese-across the U.S. and Latin America.

We hope these updates help educators cultivate an engaging, learning-driven classroom and help unleash creativity in their students. If you're at ISTE this week, visit us at booth #1602 to learn more, say hello to our team and test out our latest tools. You can also follow along all week for updates on Twitter and Facebook.

We look forward to collaborating with you to make the 2018-2019 school year the best one yet! Until then, we wish you a happy, well-deserved summer break.

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Live from ISTE: 12 Google for Education launches to save time for creativity

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We're at ISTE announcing 12 updates to help teachers stay organized and cultivate creative learning environments.

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PowerPoint has many features that students and teachers often overlook. That's bound to happen with any program that has been around as long as PowerPoint has and includes as many features as PowerPoint does. One of those overlooked features is found in the Add-ins available for PowerPoint. Browse through the gallery of Add-ins and you'll find some excellent tools for math teachers and students.

The GeoGebra PowerPoint Add-in lets you access GeoGebra materials directly from your PowerPoint slides. You can also use the Add-in to create graphs, shapes, and spreadsheets within your slides. The GeoGebra PowerPoint Add-in works in the desktop and online versions of PowerPoint.

Khan Academy's math videos and math practice exercises are available in a PowerPoint Add-in. The Khan Academy PowerPoint Add-in lets you find videos and exercises to insert directly into slides. The exercises that you insert into your slides are fully functional which means that you could use them for live demonstrations without having to leave your slides.

PhET provides free interactive math and science simulations covering topics in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. In the PhET library you'll find simulations appropriate for elementary, middle, high school, and university students. More than 50 of the PhET simulations are available to insert into PowerPoint presentations through the use of PhET's free PowerPoint Add-in. With the Add-in installed you can browse the available simulations and insert them into your slides. The simulations work in your slide just as they do on the PhET website.

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Three Good PowerPoint Add-ins for Math Teachers

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PowerPoint has many features that students and teachers often overlook. That's bound to happen with any program that has been around as long as PowerPoint has and includes as many features as PowerPoint does. One of those overlooked features is found in the Add-ins available for PowerPoint.

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Accommodation Resources

All of my resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 United States license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) In short, you can copy, distribute, and adapt these resources as long as you give proper attribution and do not charge for them.

Session Agenda - "Google Tools for Struggling Students" - Google Document link

Slide Show - "Google Tools for Struggling Students" - Google Slides link

Training video - "Google Tools for Struggling Students" - YouTube link

Blog post - "8 Ambient Sound Websites to Help Students Focus" - Website link

Sample Document for Testing - Google Document link

Blog post - "Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs" - Website link

Blog post - "10 Alternatives for the Readability Extension" - Website link

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Accommodation Resources All of my resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 United States license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) In short, you can copy, distribute, and adapt these resources as long as you give proper attribution and do not charge for them.

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Writing is a skill that crosses all subject areas and all grade levels. No matter what you teach, it is critical for your students to be able to express their ideas clearly when writing.

There are a multitude of ways for students to improve their writing, including many technology tools that come from Google or that work with G Suite. With these technology tools, the writing process can be improved at all stages from planning to writing to self editing to peer editing to assessment to revising to publishing.

Over the years I have done many blog posts on tech tools for the various stages of the writing process. To make it more convenient, I have pulled together all of those different resources into this one post. See below for an overview of Google tools that can be used to help students and teachers through the writing process.

For each portion of the writing process I have listed some key resources and ideas, but have also linked to my earlier blog posts for each. Be sure to click the links for the related blog posts in each section to get all of the directions, examples, and resources for each.

The Writing Process

For this collection of resources, I have organized the information into eight stages of writing:

Stage #1 - Inspiration

Stage #2 - Planning

Stage #3 - Writing Tools

Stage #4 - Self-editing

Stage #5 - Peer and Teacher Feedback

Stage #6 - Revising

Stage #7 - Assessing

Stage #8 - Publishing

Session Resources Document (for training) - Google Doc link
The first step in writing is coming up with an idea to write about. For stories, poems, or journal entries, Google Sheets can be used as a fun way to generate random writing prompts. See below for my templates and directions for random writing prompt generators using words or emoji images.

Blog post - "Emoji Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets" - Website link

Spreadsheet Template - "Emoji Writing Prompt Generator" - Google Sheets link

Blog post - "Random Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets" - Website link

Spreadsheet Template - "Random Writing Prompt Generator" - Google Sheets link

Before students write the first word of their report or essay or story, it helps to begin with a plan. One way to do this is to have students use a graphic organizer to collect and arrange their ideas. There are many digital tools for creating graphic organizers, however, an excellent option from the Google suite is Google Drawings. With Drawings you can provide pre-made templates for students to fill in, or the students can create their own graphic organizers.

See below for access to my graphic organizers templates you can copy, as well as additional resources and directions for creating your own.

Blog post - "30 Free Google Drawings Graphic Organizers" - Website link

Blog post - "Language Arts Graphic Organizers with Google Drawings" - Website link

Help Guide - "Google Drawings for Graphic Organizers" - Google Document link

Training video - "Google Drawings for Graphic Organizers" - YouTube Video

Stage #3 - Writing Tools

Once a student begins their actual writing, there are several tools they can use to help get their words on the page.

With this tool students can simply speak to Google Docs and what they say will be converted into text.

This can be a fantastic way to help students get all their thoughts out, especially for those who are still learning to type, or struggle with spelling.

To use this tool in Google Docs click "Tools" then "Voice typing".

Click on the microphone button to dictate to Docs!

For more details on Voice Typing, see the first part of my post on "Self-Editing Tools for Student Writing" - Website link

Explore Tool

This tool can be used to search for information from within a Google Document.

The student can search for websites, images, and more.

Information found can then be added to their writing in Google Docs, including citations for the source.

To access this tool in Google Docs click "Tools" then "Explore".

Rhyme Finder Add-on

If the student is working on poetry, The Rhyme Finder Add-on for Google Docs can be a helpful tool.

This add-on provides a list of rhyming words for any word you select in a Google Document.

You can install the Rhyme Finder Add-on here: Google Docs Add-on link

Stage #4 - Self-editing

After students have started their writing, they will want to review what they have written and make improvements. There are loads of useful tools that can help students to self-edit their writing, including text-to-speech, grammar checkers, dictionaries, and more. With these resources students can take ownership of the editing process to improve their writing.

See below for directions and resources for student self-editing.

Blog post - "Self-Editing Tools for Student Writing in Google Docs" - Website link

Slideshow - "Self-Editing Tools for Student Writing in Google Docs" - Google Slides link

Text-to-Speech

With the text-to-speech feature of the Read&Write extension, students can have their writing read back aloud to them.

Having a text-to-speech tool read the document aloud provides an accurate rendition of what was really written, helping the student catch incorrect terms, accidentally repeated words, and sections that do not flow well.

Read&Write for Google Chrome - Chrome Web Store link

Grammar and Style Checkers
Thesaurus Tools

Google Docs "Define" feature - Select a word, click "Tools" then "Define"

Writefull Thesaurus add-on: Google Docs Add-on link

Stage #5 - Peer and Teacher Feedback

In addition to self-editing, students can benefit greatly from feedback from their peers and teachers. With Google Docs there are many ways for others to view student works and provide helpful input, including text, voice, video, and handwritten feedback.

See below for resources and directions for different feedback options.

Blog post - "Four Fantastic Feedback Tools for Google Docs" - Website link

Training video - "Fantastic Feedback Tools for Google Docs" - YouTube Video

Slideshow - "Feedback Tools for Google Docs" - Google Slides link

Sharing for Feedback

To allow others to leave feedback on a Google Doc, the file needs to be shared properly.

Sharing with "Can comment" rights - This allows peer review and teacher feedback on writing

Sharing with "Can edit" rights - This allows student group work, as well as detailed feedback from teachers

For more details on sharing see my post "Sharing and Collaborating with Google Drive" - Website link

Text Feedback

Simple text feedback can be provided with the Insert Comment feature

You can use the Voice Typing feature to speak your text comments by saying "Insert Comment" followed by the comment

You can use Google Keep integration to insert text comments from comment lists - Website link

Sample comment banks - Website link

Sample Docs Stickers - Website link

You can use the "Checkmark" extension to insert frequently used text comments quickly - Extension link

Voice Feedback

The Read&Write for Google Chrome web extension can be used to record voice comments and insert them into a Google Doc. This can be a great way to provide personalized feedback to students on their work.

Read&Write Chrome extension - Chrome web store link

Register as a teacher to get the full version at no cost - Website link

Use the Voice Note feature to record your voice and insert into the document.

Video Feedback

The Screencastify Chrome web extension can be used to make a video recording of your screen so you can record video and audio feedback of the student's work, such as their Google Document.

You can record 10 minutes at a time for free, the recorded video is saved to your drive, and the link to the video can easily be shared with the student for them to watch.

Screencastify Chrome extension: Chrome web store link

Blog post - "Super Screencasting Activities for Students" - Website link

Handwritten Feedback

The mobile version of the Classroom app allows teachers and students to handwrite annotated notes on top of documents. This is a great way to provide more natural written feedback to students on their work.

Android App - Mobile app link

Open the student's Google Doc.

Click the pencil icon in the top right corner to switch to annotation mode.

Click the save icon in the top right when done

Stage #6 - Revising

As students edit and improve their writing, it can be very useful to be able to see what changes they have made over time. There are several tools available to help provide you with this insight into the student's writing process.

Version History

With Google Docs (and Slides, Sheets, Drawings) you can view the version history to see all the changes ever made to the document as well as who made the change. This can be valuable information for the writing and revision process.

Blog post - "6 awesome uses for Revision History" - Website link

Blog post - "Using Named Versions in Docs to Track Writing Drafts" - Website link

Draftback

This extension allows you to view the revision history of a document like a movie, so you can see the order in which the document was written and edited.

Draftback Chrome Extension - Chrome web store link

Revision History Analytics

This tool collects all of the Revision History data and then creates pie charts and tables showing data for each person who edited the Doc.

These include totals for each person's interactions, edits, comments, and words.

It is a simple way to get a visual and numeric representation of how much each person contributed to the work.

Revision History Analytics - Google Doc Add-on link

Stage #7 - Assessing

One part of the writing process is providing an assessment of the product. Rather than just giving a simple grade, a rubric can be used to give detailed feedback to students on their writing. There are several tools you can use to grade Google Documents with rubrics.

See below for directions on how to use several different rubric tools.

Rubric Tools:

Stage #8 - Publishing

Rather than have the student writing process end with their grade, we can extend it by sharing their writing with a broader, authentic audience. This provides motivation for students to write their best and to continue to revise and improve their work.

Because Google Docs are digital, it is easy for student writing to be shared with family, community, others students, and people around the world.

Documents can be shared as a link, and then the link can be posted on websites, blogs, social media, emails, newsletters, and more.

Documents can be exported into other formats including PDF's and EPUB to be shared through other services.

For details on how to share student writing online see my blog post linked below:

Blog Post - "Why and How to Share Student Writing with the World" - Website link

Conclusion
Writing is a complex process made of many parts, not just the act of putting words on a page. All along this process there are many technology tools that can help students and teachers to improve the writing.

I am sure you know other technology tools to add to this list, and I would love to hear your suggestions in the comment section. Hopefully though you have picked up some new ideas and inspiration from the resources above.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Writing is a skill that crosses all subject areas and all grade levels. No matter what you teach, it is critical for your students to be able to express their ideas clearly when writing. There are a multitude of ways for students to improve their writing, including many technology tools that come from Google or that work with G Suite.

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Differentiate with Learning Menus and Choice Boards

"...at its core, differentiated instruction means addressing ways in which students vary as learners." - Carol Ann Tomlinson

[Tweet "Interactive Learning Menus with @GoogleforEdu #edtech#gsuiteedu"]

What Are Learning Menus?

IT'S ALL ABOUT CHOICE! Learning menus (aka choice boards) are a form of differentiated learning that gives students a menu or choice of learning activities. Learning menus and choice boards can be created in a variety of styles and mediums. They've been around for a long time and originated in a static, paper format. But with digital tools, we can bring the menus to life with interactivity and creation. Menus can be a simple list, a tic-tac-toe or bingo-style game, or get as creative and intricate as you like. Check out my Pinterest board for ideas.

Learning Menus Can Be Used with Any Age Group

I have found that menus and choice boards tend to be more popular among elementary teachers, but I used them in my middle school classroom, and now I use them in professional learning workshops with adults. Any grade level can use learning menus!

Learning Menus Can Be Used in Any Subject Area

Since learning menus are so flexible, they can easily be created and adapted for just about any subject area. So no excuses! Any teacher who is willing to try can make use of this student-centered strategy.

[Tweet "Any teacher who is willing to try can make use of this student-centered strategy. #edtech"]

Are Learning Menus Hyperdocs the Same Thing?

No, but they could be part of a Hyperdoc assignment. I love Hyperdocs! But these two are not one in the same. Keep in mind the definition of learning menus stated above. It is simply a menu of choices from which students can choose. Student choice is the big idea behind learning menus and choice boards.

A Hyperdoc is a complete packaged assignment that also meets some additional criteria. A Hyperdoc doesn't have to include choice, but it could. To learn more about Hyperdocs, visit their site or read the AMAZING book by Lisa Highfill, Sarah Landis, and Kelly Hilton.

Creating a Tic-Tac-Toe Learning Menu in Google Docs

One easy way to dip your toes into the learning menu water is a Tic-Tac-Toe menu. A Tic-Tac-Toe can be used for anything from short activities to more long-term projects, both assessment FOR learning (formative) and assessment OF learning (summative).

Below is an example of a Novel Unit Tic-Tac-Toe menu that I created as a summative project. It was created in Google Docs, nothing fancy, just a table and some color. Depending on how you want to use, you can add links, rubrics, images, video and more. (Click here to use my blank tic-tac-toe template.)
CLICK HERE to use the Novel Study Tic-Tac-Toe template. On mobile? CLICK HERE to make a copy.
Learning Menu Design

Remember when you are creating a learning menu to align it with your learning goals! First, I use the middle square as my non-negotiable, the one activity that I want every student to complete. This could be reading an article, watching a video, or in this case; every student will write a summary and add it to a collaborative Google Slide deck where they will also add links to their other projects. Everything in one place!

Some teachers also make the middle square a free space where students can propose their own ideas to demonstrate their learning. LOVE THIS IDEA!

I had some students who would try to find the easiest or fastest way to complete the tasks. But if you pay attention to the learning design, you can design it so that it gives choice and flexible learning paths, not just an easy completion grade.

I use the color to guide the learning design. Because I use the middle square as a non-negotiable, I control how they make the tic-tac-toe just a little bit more. Every student will do the middle square and one from the blue and one from the yellow. In this summative example, students are mostly creating, but in the example below, you will see how it can also work for activities that guide the learning.

Below is a professional learning example that I designed for teaching Google Chrome. As a trainer, I typically have very mixed groups in my training sessions (multiple grade levels, subject areas, and tech savviness). I usually address general skills, and apps and extensions that are applicable across all grade levels and subject areas as a whole group.

Then I move into an activity like the Chrome PD Tic-Tac-Toe learning menu to allow teachers to dig deeper into their own subject areas and grade levels AND move at a pace that is comfortable for their level and learning style.
CLICK HERE to use my Chrome PD Tic-Tac-Toe template. On mobile? CLICK HERE to make a copy of the template.
Other Types of Learning Menus

As I said, a tic-tac-toe is just one type of menu. It happens to be a favorite of mine because they are easy to design and are not too overwhelming. But I have used many other types of menus, and I have been curating ideas on this Learning Menu Pinterest Board.

Digital Menu for Student Creation with Google Slides by Tommy Spall

Below is a Google Slide example of a learning menu that takes on the look of a restaurant menu from my friend, Tommy Spall. Follow him @TommySpall. (You can thank me later!) Click here to make a copy of Tommy's template that includes linked slides to lots of Googley projects and room for you to make it your own. (If you are on mobile and having trouble with the template link, try this make a copy link.)

Professional Development BINGO Board by Amber Teamann and Melinda Miller

Another option is to make it a full out BINGO board, like in this example from my friend Amber Teamann and her collaborator Melinda Miller. (Follow them at @8Amber8 and @MMiller7571, and yes, you will thank me for this one, too!)

Amber and Melinda are both elementary school principals. They issued this BINGO PD Challenge to her teachers over the summer, and I thought it might inspire you with some other options for choice and challenges in your classroom or professional learning. You can learn more details about PD Bingo in Amber's blog post.

Using G Suite to Create Learning Menus

The possibilities are truly endless! Consider all the ways you could use G Suite to create learning menus and the extended activities and links. Try thinking of the ways you could create menus using these G Suite tools:

Google Docs

Google Slides

Google Drawings

Google Sheets

Google My Maps

Google Sites

How to Use Google Templates and Assign in Google Classroom

If you enjoyed this post, you will love the more in-depth look at the power of choice boards and more examples in this post and podcast episode.

© Shake Up Learning 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com. See: Copyright Policy.

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Interactive Learning Menus (Choice Boards) Using Google Docs

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I love learning menus, and it is one of my favorite ways to incorporate student choice and to differentiate learning. And with digital tools like G Suite for Education, it's super easy to make menus interactive, digital, and more dynamic! Digital Differentiation offers teachers and students many ways to reach all learners.

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" It's the not the Destination, It's the journey. " ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been doing my best to convince my students that the process of learning matters more than the final product. The idea is that they should focus more on exploring and questioning than getting to the finish line so they just turn something in and be done.

It is not always easy to slow them down, but one thing I've learned is that frequent formative assessments are a great way to slow down and check our learning. I use a variety of formative assessment tools to get this accomplished.

Today I wanted to share a new favorite, Giant Steps by Pear Deck

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A blog about education, learning, teaching, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, assessment, and edtech.

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EdTech Reviews & Resources | Common Sense Education

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EdTech Reviews & Resources | Common Sense Education

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Science of Learning: Has video grading killed the dreaded red pen?

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Science of Learning: Has video grading killed the dreaded red pen?

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A decade ago, English teacher David Narter had a revelation. One of his students had asked for extra guidance on her writing. She and Narter, a teacher at the Leyden High Schools, outside Chicago, sat down to review an essay of hers that he'd marked up. Narter started by simply reading his comments aloud. To his surprise, that process made a big difference.

In an article for the English Journal, Narter recounts how the student found his feedback more encouraging when he expressed it orally. As his student explained to him, "When I see the writing all over the paper, it just sounds like you're saying, 'You're a bad writer.' But now I feel like I can actually write this."

Feedback is a funny beast. We all need pointers on our performance, but giving and receiving feedback can be fraught with misunderstanding. Take red pens. Social psychologists and sociologists have found that, as opposed to blue ink, grading in crimson can lead to more aggressive critique. The recipients of these mark-ups, meanwhile, may see their teacher as less approachable.

Fortunately, some simple, creative changes can help. Although Narter could not provide one-on-one counseling to every student, he has found a way to simulate such tête-à-têtes to reach a larger audience: by replacing written comments with personalized, five-minute video reviews of each assignment. The videos, he has found, allow him to provide useful, big-picture commentary. They also keep students feeling motivated rather than deflated - and the task takes Narter less time than writing out his notes.

The implication, then, is that the more we know about a speaker or writer, the better we'll interpret his or her meaning. Riordan has studied text messages and email where, broadly, we struggle to communicate fully. In 2016, she found, for instance, that we tend to overestimate how well we share our feelings via email - even among friends. Happily, the study also hinted that this confidence was slightly more warranted when people have known each other longer. (It also found that people were more likely to accurately interpret negative emotions than positive ones.)

If a student doesn't know his teacher well, Riordan points out, it may be easier for him to misinterpret her feedback. What's more, without cues like tone of voice or facial expression, a reader's mood can easily color his interpretations. If a student is feeling anxious and distressed, it's probable he'll take corrections critically. (Thus, it's easy to imagine why Narter's student was so reassured by his spoken commentary.)

Of course, we receive even more cues when we communicate in-person. Mahdi Roghanizad, an assistant professor of management and organizational studies at Canada's Western University, has demonstrated that we're more persuasive when we make requests face-to-face than via email. He has also found that people are better at gauging a stranger's potential generosity when chatting in person, rather than in a video-to-video format (a la Skype). This in-person advantage disappears, however, when people wear mirrored sunglasses, obstructing eye contact.

Evolutionary psychology, he says, offers a possible explanation: "Our brain has evolved to communicate face-to-face, the more we go away from that specific channel, the less efficient we are."

That logic might also explain why online-only courses, including much-vaunted MOOCs, struggle to retain students. But could video technology enhance these courses by adding more human elements?

Another Chatham professor, Meigan Robb of the nursing department, is trying to find out. Robb teaches an online course to experienced, degree-holding nursing professionals. Yet, just like Narter, she's found that many pupils take away far more from a brief video than a densely edited manuscript. "I was pouring my heart and soul into [written feedback]," she recalls. But the students, she says, "didn't do anything I asked them to do."

To remedy that, she now combines written edits, audio files and narrated presentations to comment on her students' work, both at the level of individual assignments and their overall progress in the course. Although it's time-consuming, Robb believes the approach makes the class more engaging.

Back at Monash, Phillips reports that students in classes with video feedback seem to take greater responsibility for their work. "It's the only time ever that I've had a student apologize for failing," he says of a recent class in which he used video. He suspects the rich, individualized feedback helped the student form a more personal connection to the course. That may be a small fail for the student but a big win for video.
This story about video grading was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.

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Science of Learning: Has video grading killed the dreaded red pen?

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In the past few years, a handful of educators, working in different disciplines and various education levels, have made similar observations. Michael Phillips and Michael Henderson, education faculty at Monash University in Australia, have been experimenting with video feedback for years.

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How Giving Students Feedback Through Video Instead of Text Can Foster Better Understanding | MindShift | KQED News

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How Giving Students Feedback Through Video Instead of Text Can Foster Better Understanding | MindShift | KQED News

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Narter is not alone. In the past few years, a handful of educators, working in different disciplines and various education levels, have made similar observations. Michael Phillips and Michael Henderson, education faculty at Monash University in Australia, have been experimenting with video feedback for years. They've created a website with recommendations for teachers who want to try it out themselves. To date, Phillips and Henderson have helped instructors use video feedback for classes from 20 to 700 students, across high schools and universities, in subjects as far ranging as philosophy and engineering.

Technology has limitations, of course. Teachers need to master their smart phone or computer's basic recording techniques. Videos must be relatively brief (about five minutes or less) lest the files become unwieldy to share. But technological advances are making the task easier and easier. For example, screencasting apps, which create the video equivalent of a screengrab, now let teachers highlight specific passages in a student's work as part of the film.

Overall, Phillips and Henderson, who previously taught in high schools, have been blown away by their pupils' rave reviews. Students, without any solicitation, have been emailing them to praise the videos for their clarity and encouragement. "In our combined 25 years of experience," Phillips says, "we never got responses like that."

Cognitive scientists may be less surprised by the enthusiasm for video grading. Simply put, video carries more communication cues, such as tone of voice and facial expression, than a written message. Those clues make it easier for students to correctly interpret their teacher's meaning.

Emotion, for example, is largely conveyed through nonverbal cues, as psychologist Albert Mehrabian (now an emeritus professor at the University of California, Los Angeles) revealed in studies in the 1960s. And Mehrabian believes the video format offers other advantages to both teacher and student. "Speaking and recording are bound to involve far greater freedom and less effort than composing a written comment," he explained in an email to me.

Indeed, in the videos, teachers typically use a casual, conversational style, which students see as authentic and accessible. Phillips, for one, stresses that he never edits or performs any post-processing: "It's not a Spielberg movie."

Video may be rich with clues, but the written word is relatively sparse. As a result, we do a lot more mental work to interpret this latter form of communication. "We have this way of processing things in our brain where we actually attach information to a particular person, so we can imagine that person talking as we read their words," says Monica Riordan, a cognitive scientist and assistant professor of psychology at Chatham University, in Pittsburgh.

The implication, then, is that the more we know about a speaker or writer, the better we'll interpret his or her meaning. Riordan has studied text messages and email where, broadly, we struggle to communicate fully. In 2016, she found, for instance, that we tend to overestimate how well we share our feelings via email - even among friends. Happily, the study also hinted that this confidence was slightly more warranted when people have known each other longer. (It also found that people were more likely to accurately interpret negative emotions than positive ones.)

If a student doesn't know his teacher well, Riordan points out, it may be easier for him to misinterpret her feedback. What's more, without cues like tone of voice or facial expression, a reader's mood can easily color his interpretations. If a student is feeling anxious and distressed, it's probable he'll take corrections critically. (Thus, it's easy to imagine why Narter's student was so reassured by his spoken commentary.)

Of course, we receive even more cues when we communicate in-person. Mahdi Roghanizad, an assistant professor of management and organizational studies at Canada's Western University, has demonstrated that we're more persuasive when we make requests face-to-face than via email. He has also found that people are better at gauging a stranger's potential generosity when chatting in person, rather than in a video-to-video format (a la Skype). This in-person advantage disappears, however, when people wear mirrored sunglasses, obstructing eye contact.

Evolutionary psychology, he says, offers a possible explanation: "Our brain has evolved to communicate face-to-face, the more we go away from that specific channel, the less efficient we are."

That logic might also explain why online-only courses, including much-vaunted MOOCs, struggle to retain students. But could video technology enhance these courses by adding more human elements?

Another Chatham professor, Meigan Robb of the nursing department, is trying to find out. Robb teaches an online course to experienced, degree-holding nursing professionals. Yet, just like Narter, she's found that many pupils take away far more from a brief video than a densely edited manuscript. "I was pouring my heart and soul into [written feedback]," she recalls. But the students, she says, "didn't do anything I asked them to do."

To remedy that, she now combines written edits, audio files and narrated presentations to comment on her students' work, both at the level of individual assignments and their overall progress in the course. Although it's time-consuming, Robb believes the approach makes the class more engaging.

Back at Monash, Phillips reports that students in classes with video feedback seem to take greater responsibility for their work. "It's the only time ever that I've had a student apologize for failing," he says of a recent class in which he used video. He suspects the rich, individualized feedback helped the student form a more personal connection to the course. That may be a small fail for the student but a big win for video.

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How Giving Students Feedback Through Video Instead of Text Can Foster Better Understanding | KQED

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Narter is not alone. In the past few years, a handful of educators, working in different disciplines and various education levels, have made similar observations. Michael Phillips and Michael Henderson, education faculty at Monash University in Australia, have been experimenting with video feedback for years.

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Copy of TEMPLATE with Links and Resources Explore-Explain-Apply-Extend HyperDoc - Google Docs

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Copy of TEMPLATE with Links and Resources Explore-Explain-Apply-Extend HyperDoc - Google Docs

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Copy of TEMPLATE with Links and Resources Explore-Explain-Apply-Extend HyperDoc

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Train Your Students to Think Like Researchers |

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Train Your Students to Think Like Researchers |

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Train Your Students to Think Like Researchers

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Too often students rely entirely on someone else's research, data, and analysis. They do not feel empowered to collect and analyze their own data. However, if we want our students to think like researchers, we need to provide them with the tools necessary to conduct real research.

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Know Your Why!: Enhancing HyperDocs - Our Professional Development Resources

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Know Your Why!: Enhancing HyperDocs - Our Professional Development Resources

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We create practical, timely, affordable professional learning to help educators and instructional leaders provide students with a modern, equitable, and quality education.

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10 Edtech Podcasts That You Will Love - The Tech Edvocate

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10 Edtech Podcasts That You Will Love - The Tech Edvocate

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Spread the loveAs an educational professional, the best way to learn about new learning experiences is to hear about them firsthand from other educators. While this can be a challenge for some busy professionals, podcasts provide a convenient, approachable way for educators to learn about the latest in education technology.

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National Bike to School Day is celebrated in May each year as part of May being recognized as National Bike Month. Many schools around the country celebrate the day with a focus on bike safety and encouraging students to ride their bikes to school that day.

Technology can be integrated into Bike to School Day by incorporating Google Maps. In addition to driving directions, Google Maps also provides directions and details for different modes of transportation including walking, riding a bus, or riding a bike.

See the rest of the blog post below to learn how to use this feature, as well as other ideas for how this can address curriculum topics in math and social studies.

Using Google Maps for Biking

When we think of Google Maps it is usually to get driving directions for a trip we need to take. However, Google Maps provides directions and other details for more than just driving a car. Specifically we can use it for riding a bike.

First go to Google Maps at https://maps.google.com

In the search box type in the name or address of your school and click the search button.

After Google Maps finds your school, click the "Directions" button in the panel on the left.

Now enter or search for your starting location, such as your home address (in my example I used my work address).

Then click on the bicycle icon at the top of the panel to get bike riding directions.

The map will now update to show you the route to take to bike to school.

In the bottom right corner of the map you will find the map scale. You can click on the scale to switch between standard and metric units.

In the bottom left corner of the map you can click to switch between the road map and the satellite imagery map.

In the panel on the left you will find several details including time the bike ride will take and the distance covered.

The panel also shows a line graph of elevation changes during the trip, and lists the lowest elevation, highest elevation, number of feet that are uphill, and number of feet that are downhill.

Uses for Social Studies

Using Google Maps for biking directions can have several applications for Social Studies content. Below are several ideas and standards that can be addressed (from the Ohio's New Learning Standards for Social Studies).

Use Google Maps to show students how maps represent and help you find real places.

Kindergarten - Geography Strand - 6. Models and maps represent places

Grade 1 - Geography Strand - 4. Maps can be used to locate and identify places.

Use Google Maps to show how symbols can be used to identify locations including schools, restaurants, stores, and other places of interest.

Grade 2 - Geography Strand - 5. Maps and their symbols can be interpreted to answer questions about location of places.

Switch between the normal map view (a road map) to the Google Earth view (a satellite imagery map) to show how different types of maps can serve different purposes and represent the world in different ways.

Grade 3 - Geography Strand - 4. Physical and political maps have distinctive characteristics and purposes. Places can be located on a map by using the title, key, alphanumeric grid and cardinal directions.

Use the scale in the bottom right corner of the Google Map to estimate distances between other locations.

Grade 4 - Geography Strand - 9. A map scale and cardinal and intermediate directions can be used to describe the relative location of physical and human characteristics of Ohio and the United States.

Uses for Math

Using Google Maps for biking directions can also have several applications for Mathematics content. Below are several ideas and standards that can be addressed (from the Common Core Math Standards).

Google Maps biking directions include a section that shows elevation changes over the course of the trip. It lists how many feet you will bike uphill and how many feet you will bike downhill during the ride. For example, something like up 45 feet and down 82 feet. These elevation changes can be used to model positive and negative numbers (integers), such as up 45 feet = +45 and down 82 feet = -82. Furthermore you could model adding the integers by asking what is overall net change in elevation from where you began your ride. For example:

Up 45 feet and down 82 feet = +45 + (-82) = -37 = down 37 feet overall

CC.6.NS.5 Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers. Understand that positive and negative numbers are used together to describe quantities having opposite directions or values (e.g., temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, debits/credits, positive/negative electric charge); use positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts, explaining the meaning of 0 in each situation.

CC.6.EE.7 Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities. Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p, q and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.

CC.7.NS.1b Understand p + q as the number located a distance |q| from p, in the positive or negative direction depending on whether q is positive or negative. Show that a number and its opposite have a sum of 0 (are additive inverses). Interpret sums of rational numbers by describing real-world contexts.

Google Maps biking directions include a section that shows how many minutes the trip will take and how many miles will be covered. Students can determine how many miles per hour they would be travelling. They could also change their speed and determine how long it would take then.

CC.6.RP.3 Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems. Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.

CC.6.RP.3d Use ratio reasoning to convert measurement units; manipulate and transform units appropriately when multiplying or dividing quantities.

CC.7.RP.1 Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems. Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units. For example, if a person walks 1/2 mile in each 1/4 hour, compute the unit rate as the complex fraction (1/2)/(1/4) miles per hour, equivalently 2 miles per hour.

Google Maps biking directions include a section that shows how many minutes the trip will take. Have students use that information to determine what time they need to leave from their home to make it to school on time. This can be a good way to practice subtracting measurements of time.

CC.2.MD.8 Work with time and money. Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ (dollars) and ¢ (cents) symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?

CC.3.MD.1 Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects. Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes, e.g., by representing the problem on a number line diagram.

Conclusion
Google Maps has a multitude of applications for the classroom across all grades and subject areas. Above are just a few ideas that tie in with National Bike to School Day. It is a great way to learn how to use maps, calculate speeds, work with integers, and prove once and for all that you can't really walk to school uphill both ways in the snow.

Use the comments section below to share other ideas for how Maps and Bike to School Day could be used to address topics in various grades and subjects.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Using Google Maps Bike Directions to Teach Math and Social Studies

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National Bike to School Day is celebrated in May each year as part of May being recognized as National Bike Month. Many schools around the country celebrate the day with a focus on bike safety and encouraging students to ride their bikes to school that day.

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45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students | Shake Up Learning

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45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students | Shake Up Learning

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45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students

The Shake Up Learning community never fails to amaze me! They are always sharing new ideas, lesson plans, tips, tricks, and asking insightful questions. This week was no different.

Each week I pose a new question to the Shake Up Learning community on Facebook. ( Join here!)

This week I asked the group to share one of their favorite Google tips, and you know what, they didn't disappoint! They shared over 45 different Google tips! ( Link to original post.)

The group shared so many amazing ideas, tips, tools, features, and keyboard shortcuts, that I knew I had to compile these for easy reference and sharing.

Not only did I put all of these tips together in a Google Sheet, but I also added links to support documentation and blog posts so that you could learn the tip if it wasn't familiar.

I've embedded the Google Sheet below. I've also added links so you can view and make a copy if you wish.

We are all better together! Look at how much we can learn and share and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thank YOU for being a part of Shake Up Learning!

[Tweet "45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students from the #ShakeUpLearning community! #gsuiteedu #gttribe #googleedu #edtech"]

My Favorite Tip: Sir Links-a-Lot!

I don't like to play favorites, but this one blew me away! Rachel Murat shared one of my favorite new Chrome extensions; Sir Links-a-Lot. If the name isn't enough to make you smile, what it does will make you giddy!

It's AWESOME! It automagically makes those unique links in Google Apps for you, like force a copy, template, preview, or PDF.

Now that is just a small taste of the fun and Googley goodies in this post. So, without further ado, here are your 45+ Google tips for teachers and students!

45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students

View the Google Sheet | Make a Copy

© Shake Up Learning 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com. See: Copyright Policy.

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45+ Google Tips for Teachers and Students

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The Shake Up Learning community never fails to amaze me! They are always sharing new ideas, lesson plans, tips, tricks, and asking insightful questions. This week was no different. Each week I pose a new question to the Shake Up Learning community on Facebook. ( Join here!)

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Great ideas

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16 Curation Tools for Teachers and Students | Shake Up Learning

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16 Curation Tools for Teachers and Students | Shake Up Learning

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16 Curation Tools for Teachers and Students

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This post brings together a suggested list, a curated list if you will, of 16 curation tools for teachers and students from the Shake Up Learning community.

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The playlist concept stems from the Individual Rotation Model in which each student works from an individual playlist of activities.

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The playlist concept stems from the Individual Rotation Model in which each student works from an individual playlist of activities.

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Playlists: A Path to Personalizing Learning - Dr. Catlin Tucker

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One reason I am such a big advocate for blended learning is that using the various models allow me to spend more time on the aspects of my job that I enjoy and feel are most valuable for students. I don't want to waste precious class time talking at my students.

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A deeper look at the Flex model - Blended Learning Universe

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In our blended-learning research, we have aimed to develop a common language for educators to use as they talk about going blended. Part of this work has involved developing a taxonomy of blended-learning models that describe how we see blended learning taking shape in schools across the world. Although not every school fits neatly into […]

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How to Add Voice Comments to Google Docs, PDFs, and Word Docs

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How to Add Voice Comments to Google Docs, PDFs, and Word Docs

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How to Add Voice Comments to Google Docs, PDFs, and Word Docs - Practical Ed Tech

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Kaizena is a free tool that lets you add voice comments to Google Documents, PDFs, and Word documents. For Google Docs users Kaizena has a free Google Docs Add-on that makes it easy to add voice comments to your documents and to the documents that students share with you.

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9 OF THE BEST MATH APPS AND GAMES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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9 OF THE BEST MATH APPS AND GAMES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

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9 of the Best Math Apps and Games for High School Students

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Spread the loveMath has always been known as one of the less-glamorous subjects. Sure, some people love the rhythm and reason of mathematical concepts, but average Kindergartners won't tell you that they want to be an engineer, or a mathematician, or even a computer scientist when they grow up.

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Examples of schools that have moved to the flex model of blended learning

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Examples of schools that have moved to the flex model of blended learning

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Alternative Groupings

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Station Rotation Model: Alternative Group Formations

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These are just a few of the concerns I hear when I work with secondary teachers on the Station Rotation Model. I hope these suggestions will help coaches and teachers get creative with group formations. There is no one correct method for planning and executing a station rotation lesson.

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Look at the concept of the whole class novel and how we can make it work within our reading environments without killing the love of reading.

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Look at the concept of the whole class novel and how we can make it work within our reading environments without killing the love of reading.

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I knew I had to teach reading when I was first hired as a 4th-grade teacher. After all, every teacher teaches reading. Yet, I didn't know how to really teach reading. I knew components of effective literacy practice, and yet, what those actually looked like within my own classroom was a bit of a mystery. How did actual teachers of reading teach reading to kids who already knew mostly how to read?

My very first answer? Whole class novel, of course.

Thinking back to my own days of learning how to read, I knew to not go the basal approach, and yet I remembered that shared experience of reading the same novel as everyone else. Of discussing. Of trying to find meaning within its pages as we drove each other to deeper levels of understanding. Of even finding a few books I never knew I could love (For Whom the Bell Tolls, anyone?!) to remembering the year together (9th grade honors English with Mrs. Vincent at Lenox Memorial High School, Massachusetts)because of the very books we shared.

Since I knew my students were not quite ready for Hemingway, I picked what I hoped would be a great anchor text for us - Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, the beloved classic rite-of-passage read by Judy Blume.

I now had the book.

All I needed was the work to go with it.

So I found it on the internet, an entire packet just for the book, with questions, activities, and word searches galore. The students could even color in the pages if they so chose. Prep work done, I was ready. And so we began our fourth-grade year together within the pages of a very short book, 144 pages to be exact and we split it up evenly within the 7-ish weeks I had set aside for the task. 4 pages a night could certainly not be too much to ask. Let the reading begin.

And it did. So did the packet work. The lackluster discussions. The rigid instruction, and perhaps even some scolding when students dared to read ahead.

Rarely do I remember us marveling at the audacity of Fudge. Rarely do I remember gathering the kids around the pages of the book to look at something together. Rarely do I remember coming to class excited to discuss, to share, to connect around the book.

But the work pages. The long-drawn-out reading. The lack of excitement. That I remember.

And so for a long time, I swore off whole class novels. Even jumped in the camp of telling everyone else how awful they were. How they are killing the love of reading in kids. But what good does that type of rigid thinking do when my very own memories betray me of my own whole class novel experiences. And so it turned out that I, once again, was proven wrong.

Because it wasn't really about the whole class novel. It was about me and my own adherence to terrible decisions that surrounded the experience.

So now, let's look at this concept of the whole class novel and how we can actually make it work within our reading environments without killing the love of reading. It turns out what we need are just a few tweaks and perhaps a dose of common sense.

Step 1 - Redefine the purpose. Rather than using whole class novel to produce a lot of work, how about we redefine the expectation to producing a whole lot of talk.

Idea - Cut out the written work altogether or boil it down to one main product. Does it have to be written or can it be filmed? Does it have to be an analysis or can it be a discussion of relevance? By connecting the book read with other issues in our current society? Does it have to be produced alone or can it be produced with others? Can we assess the discussions as they happen and not worry so much about the end result? And can we please roll back on the annotations. There is very little reason to annotate an entire book, other than to prove you have read it. Is that really what we want kids to work on?

Step 2 - Redefine the access. One of the major problems within a whole-class novel is that for many students the book is not a great match for their current reading capabilities. While it is good to stretch students with challenge texts, you don't want to put it so far our of their reach that they simply feel defeated and it becomes yet another nail in their "I hate reading coffin." For others students, the book is way too easy and they would rather read other books after they have read this one.

Idea - Offer choice in accessibility. Do all students have to read it with their eyes or can it be listened to? Can it be shared as a small group read aloud? Can kids partner-read? Can kids read it quickly and show up ready to discuss when needed? Provide multiple access points so that all kids can focus on the purpose; engaging discussions.

Step 3 - Redefine what we read. Why is it that our literary canon are still the same books that I read more than 20 years ago in high school? Yes, there is merit at some point in your life to picking up some of the classics, but you will get infinitesimally more out of them when you are invested. To Kill a Mockingbird was incredibly boring when I read it in 9th grade, but when I re-read it as a 23-year-old, I had a better experience. So how about rather than using this format as a way to expose students to classical texts that they otherwise may not pick up on their own, instead use it to garner deep discussion that can mirror the societal discussion surrounding us? Besides, what about how problematic some of these texts are? we cannot keep hiding behind the cloak of "that's how they spoke in that time" to make it okay to read them. See this great article here discussing some of the major issues with our current literary canon.

Idea - Critically evaluate the classics and give choice. Perhaps some kids do want to read the same books as their parents did, but others don't. Take a critical lens to what you are offering up. Who are these choices for? Why are these choices offered year after year? When were these books selected? Simply saying its because they are classics is not enough when we have brilliant books that have been published within even the last 50 years. (Even this year!) There should be a balance.

Step 4 - Redefine the time. One of my major mistakes was to stretch our whole class novel out over way too long of a time period. I have seen some schools use an entire book for a quarter of the year. I don't care how great the book is, few people can sustain their interest for 12 weeks or more.

Idea - Shorten the length. Three weeks max. That way you have to move through it at a good speed and you can focus on the most central or interesting parts. Within a three-week period, there is also a sense of urgency that otherwise can get lost. Students have to keep up with the text to keep up with the discussion rather than assume that they can simply read it later when it really starts to count.

Step 5 - Redefine your role. One critical aspect I lost within our whole class novel was that it was all centered on me. I generated the questions (or purchased them in my case). I led the discussions. I assessed the work. That is easy for kids to get through and exhausting for the teacher. There is also very little buy-in as far as responsibility and it is easy for kids to coast through, especially those kids who have pretty great reading skills. That is not the intent behind the work.

Idea - Share the responsibility. Start as a role model for how to lead discussions but then share the responsibility with students. Delegate who will come up with questions and who will steer the conversation? Getting students invested beyond the quick answer can lead to more engagement and definitely more understanding of what it means to engage others.

Step 6 - Use it sparingly. I have heard of school districts that mandate that every single reading experience is through a whole class novel for an entire year. In fact, my own amazing niece is currently a victim of that. I don't use that term lightly, but you know what it has done for her love of reading after several years of this? Yup, totally quashed it. When I ask her what she reads for fun, she says nothing. That's what doing the same thing over and over can do for you. It may have been great at first but going through the same routine over and over is sure to lead to routine fatigue.

Idea - Everything in moderation. Reserve the whole class novel for those one or two incredible books that you just know will light your class on fire. Reserve it for the fall as you establish your community and perhaps once more in the spring when you know each other so much better. Use it as a tool to challenge their thinking, their analysis, their communication. Put your all into it and then do something else; free choice, book clubs, anything but another whole class novel. Make it special and treat it as such.

While it has been a while since my students actively dove into a whole class novel with me, I am always on the lookout for that amazing text that I feel we all need to digest together. Once I find it, I cannot wait to dive in with my students. Until then, if you need more ideas and inspiration, please read Kate Roberts new book, A Novel Approach.
If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

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Five + One Ideas for Redefining the Whole Class Novel Experience for All

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I knew I had to teach reading when I was first hired as a 4th-grade teacher. After all, every teacher teaches reading. Yet, I didn't know how to really teach reading. I knew components of effective literacy practice, and yet, what those actually looked like within my own classroom was a bit of a mystery.

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Ways to get comfortable with the uncertainty while incorporating tech

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Ways to get comfortable with the uncertainty while incorporating tech

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Plan to not know how everything will turn out

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Apr 13, 2018 WORDS BY Marta Harding

"Embrace Ambiguity." It's a value we take very seriously here at IDEO. The phrase invites designers to go with the flow in the face of the unknown. On paper, the freedom sounds liberating. But in practice, navigating ambiguity can be downright stress-inducing.

From a very young age, we're praised for knowing the right answer-and on the quick! But as designers, that's almost never possible. Our job is to help create a future that is, by definition, uncertain; so we're forced to face ambiguity on every project. There are always times when we don't know where to go next, don't have an answer, or get stuck. So how do we deal? What are ways to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable?

Here are three things I've learned to help me remain calm in the face of uncertainty.

1. Plan to not know

Imagine you're in a meeting, surrounded by important clients, when someone hits you with an unexpected hardball question. All heads turn to you, awaiting a brilliant response. You freeze up, your mouth goes dry. You know you should have an answer, but your mind goes blank.

Rather than going into a silent state of paralysis, take a breath and remember that you have an answer prepared for this very moment: "I don't know yet."

Obvious-sounding? Sure. Easy to own up to? Not so much.

I used to be afraid to say, "I don't know yet," because I thought I'd sound ill-equipped and uninformed. After all, our clients hire us to find answers, so to not have an answer when put on the spot can feel disconcerting.

But by allowing yourself to be vulnerable, you win trust. Owning the process makes you more credible as someone who's calm and collected in the face of uncertainty. Because let's be honest: No one has all the answers, not even the experts.

2. Shift from should to could

Let's go back to the feeling in the meeting room when all eyes are on you and you feel like you should know what to do next (but don't). You're getting ready to go into panic mode.

Oh yes, I know the feeling well.

Ever since I was young, I felt the pressure to do things as they should be done. And that pressure has followed me through adulthood.

When I first started leading projects at IDEO, I often thought to myself:

"If I were smart enough, I should be able to impress the client with my answer."

"If I were a great leader, I should know what to tell my team."

"If I were talented enough, I should know exactly what to design next."

Should, should, should. It's the "shoulds" that block your way forward.

"Should" suggests that there is one way forward, which is a sure way to set yourself up for creative blackout - a high pressure situation where you must find the single, bright and shining solution. There is no one right answer.

So whenever I find myself questioning what should be, I remind myself to ask: what could be?

What could be is a springboard for generating new ideas, brainstorming options for what to do next. It takes me from a place of oppression to optimism.

By shifting my mindset from should to could, I no longer have to come up with a single, right answer; instead, I have endless options for moving forward.

3. Change the context

Even when you are not under pressure, anxiety around not knowing the answer can find a way to creep in.

There are many times I've found myself glued to the screen, on the third cup of coffee, hardly stopping for a bite to eat. No matter how hard I try, it feels like I'm doing nothing more than pushing pixels around a screen.

How to get unstuck?

I have to force myself to remember that if I'm not getting anywhere (as hard as it may be to pry myself away from the screen), I need to stop, change my context, and gather new inputs.

Stepping away from the screen and focusing on something else for a while can bring fresh perspective to the problem.

Go for a walk, tour an art gallery, seek out a new experience that takes you out of your comfort zone. Invite another designer to look at your work and offer feedback, revisit stories from your research. By stopping and taking a step back, you create more mental space for unexpected sparks of inspiration to slip through.

Sometimes the biggest barrier to finding a way through the darkness is the pressure we put on ourselves to have all the answers. To break through, make peace with the I don't knows, the could bes, and take a step back in order to more confidently take a step forward.

Marta Harding

IDEO Alum

Marta is passionate about building brands, developing visual systems, and marrying strategic thinking with beautiful design-all best enjoyed with a glass of wine.

BLOG Ovetta Sampson & Michael Chapman

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3 Ways to Get Comfortable with Ambiguity

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Apr 13, 2018 WORDS BY Marta Harding "Embrace Ambiguity." It's a value we take very seriously here at IDEO. The phrase invites designers to go with the flow in the face of the unknown. On paper, the freedom sounds liberating. But in practice, navigating ambiguity can be downright stress-inducing.

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During National Poetry Month 2017, the Academy of American Poets received letters from over two thousand young people -fifth through twelfth graders from more than seventy public and private schools in major cities and rural areas across twenty-eight states.

These students were participating in Dear Poet, the free, multimedia education project we designed to help teachers engage their students in poetry. To participate, young people watch videos of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors reading one of their poems aloud. (Between January and June this year's eleven videos-featuring Mark Doty, Linda Gregerson, Juan Felipe Herrera, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Khaled Mattawa, Marilyn Nelson, Alicia Ostriker, Alberto Ríos, Arthur Sze, and Anne Waldman-were viewed over ten thousand times.) After watching the videos and reading the poems, students write letters to the featured poet of their choice. The poets write back to select letters, and the correspondence is published on Poets.org. In the letters we received this year, many of these young people shared that, while they were initially resistant to poetry, they found themselves surprised and excited to read contemporary poems that felt important to them. (Learn more about the current Dear Poet project and how to participate.)

Michael, an eighth grader in the Texas Rio Grande Valley, wrote to Alberto Ríos, "I am not the biggest fan of poetry, but as you read ' Refugio's Hair,' I felt like a child again, listening to a story of a captured memory. I was reluctant to complete this project at first, but hearing your poem changed my perspective of poetry."

Michael's classmate Simran, writing to Jane Hirshfield, suggested why Dear Poet might be so engaging: "Watching you read your poem was very beautiful and as you read your poem, it changed my entire perspective on this piece of literature. I believe that when an author reads their own poem, it can change the poem entirely....I just want to thank you so much for being part of the Dear Poet project and for being willing to correspond with teens across the U.S."

Through Dear Poet's videos and letters, young readers are able to engage with poetry in a particularly intimate and individual way. The project also introduces teachers and students to contemporary poets whose work they might not otherwise encounter and to poems addressing a wide range of topics relevant to young people today. In their letters, students often note their personal connections to a poet's work, pointing to what in a particular poem speaks to them and why.

Colten, a ninth grader in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, responded to Arthur Sze's " The Shapes of Leaves," a poem that touches on deforestation and habitat loss. Colten wrote, "I've never read something that made me experience the situation both emotionally and critically. I think this is why your poem resonated with me so much."

Saba, a student in Mays Landing, New Jersey, was drawn to Juan Felipe Herrera's poem " You Can't Put Muhammad Ali in a Poem," which stood out to her because it celebrates "someone who made me have confidence in myself and made me love myself for who I am." She wrote, "Being a Muslim, I always felt as if I was below others, it affected me most when I was younger.... Muhammad Ali was someone I saw who was proud of his religion."

Linda Gregerson received over two hundred letters in response to her poem " Prodigal," in which she addresses the subject of self-harm. Tyler, a tenth grader in Pembroke, New Hampshire, wrote, "Your poem allows anyone who reads it to know how serious this issue is. It allows people, like me, to want to help out in any possible way." In her letter back to Tyler, Gregerson wrote, "Certainly, turning outward to help others, as you describe, is the most positive thing to be made of personal hardship."

A twelfth grader in Berthoud, Colorado, Nina, pointed to another especially powerful role poetry can play in the lives of young people. She wrote to Jane Hirshfield, "My aunt is dying....After spending my spring break with her, I came back to school and was handed your poem, ' It Was Like This: You Were Happy ' in Senior English. I have never connected with something so much."

In fact, more students responded to Hirshfield's poem, a gentle reflection on the end of a life, than to any other. Their letters to her speak of grief, and comfort, and an evolving understanding of both happiness and loss. Hirshfield's letters in response-like the other poets' replies to letters they received-were kind, encouraging, and deeply unique. She wrote to Guadalupe, a twelfth grader in San Antonio, Texas, "One of poetry's amazing powers is that in words new ways of feeling can pass from one person to another, between you and me, alive at the same time, and also over a thousand years and across languages and cultures."

This, too, is the power of Dear Poet, which narrows the field of poetry-often daunting to students and educators-into a single connection between a poet and a young reader, who could be anywhere, and who has the rare opportunity to write back.

This article was originally featured in the Fall-Winter 2017 issue of American Poets.

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During National Poetry Month 2017, the Academy of American Poets received letters from over two thousand young people -fifth through twelfth graders from more than seventy public and private schools in major cities and rural areas across twenty-eight states. These students were participating in Dear Poet, the free, multimedia education project we designed to help teachers engage their students in poetry.

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Remix traditional Lesson plans with tech

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Remix traditional Lesson plans with tech

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It's been a little over a month since I shared any updates on BoostEDU. As I've mentioned in previous posts, it's not that I wasn't working on anything for BoostEDU - it's just that I wanted to truly finish something that I am really excited to share. It's the completely neurotic, OCD part of me! While I have quite a few more updates coming, I am super excited to share today's update with you!

As a quick reminder, BoostEDU is a program that supports teachers in transforming their traditional lessons into 21st-century lessons through an inquiry-based self-assessment and lesson design process. If you're curious about the four parts of the BoostEDU program, watch THIS video.

While I am excited about the progress I have made for BoostEDU, there is one part of the program that just hasn't felt very clear or organized to me. I designed a "resource" page for educators to use to find lesson ideas specifically aligned to the SAMR model. See what it looked like before by clicking on the image:

It's not terrible but it's definitely not clean or easy to navigate. All of the resources are in different Google Docs - which is great. However, it's kind of messy and all over the place. I think it takes away from all of the (hopefully) great resources and lesson ideas that are within those documents.

So, with the inspiration from my good friend Dee Lanier (founder of SmashboardEDU), I decided to create an Awesome Table to organize all of these resources into one, simple table that is easy to navigate via filters. Check it out by clicking on the image below:

Much better, right? I have to admit - it took wayyyy more time than I anticipated to build this awesome table. However, I think that this is a much better resource and solved one of my biggest problems. Many educators have been asking if I could add links to the tech tools on the self-assessment form. While Google Forms does not allow me to do that, I was able to add links within this resource.

How Does This Support Educators?

This resource will support educators by:

Helping them lesson ideas for a variety of instructional strategies, such as assessments, note-taking, reading, writing, research, and presentations.

Allowing them to sort by SAMR depth, tech tool, and instructional type.

Helping them to reach deeper levels of SAMR.

As always, this resource is just recently released and I would love some feedback. Share your thoughts about the SAMR Database in the comments below!

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It's been a little over a month since I shared any updates on BoostEDU. As I've mentioned in previous posts, it's not that I wasn't working on anything for BoostEDU - it's just that I wanted to truly finish something that I am really excited to share.

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Several years ago when I started making webinars, my first one was on creating Graphic Organizers with Google Drawings. This was before I had started the this blog, so I never really shared all of that information in an official blog post. Until now...

Graphic organizers are a great tool to share information, explain a concept, or illustrate a relationship using elements including images, shapes, text, colors, and connecting lines. They can be used in education with any age group or subject area.

There are many excellent tools for creating graphic organizers. Some are installable programs, while others are online. Some are free, while other cost money. Educators and students should be encouraged to try out many different tools to determine what works best for them and for specific situations.

However, one great choice for graphic organizers is Google Drawings. See below for directions on how to create graphic organizers with Google Drawings (including a help guide and a recorded webinar) as well as 30 free sample graphic organizers that you can copy, use, and modify as needed.

For written directions on how to create graphic organizers with Google Drawings, see my help guide linked below.

For a 1-hour recorded training webinar, see the video below. (It was my first webinar, so it may be a little rough around the edges.)

Sample Graphic Organizers

Click the links below to get your own copy of any of these Google Drawing templates for graphic organizers. In each template, there are directions off the left side of the Drawings canvas. Feel free to use and/or modify these as needed, although please leave my attribution and blog link in the Drawings when you share them.

Word Study Diagram - Google Drawing link

State or Country Research Web - Google Drawing link

5 Senses Diagram - Google Drawing link

Frayer Model 1 - Google Drawing link

Compare and Contrast - Google Drawing link

Cause and Effect 1 - Google Drawing link

Cause and Effect 2 - Google Drawing link

Fishbone Diagram - Google Drawing link

Season Sorter - Google Drawing link

Question Chart - Google Drawing link

Story Map 1 - Google Drawing link

Story Map 2 - Google Drawing link

Character Description - Google Drawing link

Sandwich Chart - Google Drawing link

Main Idea and Details - Google Drawing link

2 Circle Venn Diagram - Google Drawing link

3 Circle Venn Diagram - Google Drawing link

3 Level Tree Diagram - Google Drawing link

3 Step Cycle - Google Drawing link

4 Step Cycle - Google Drawing link

6 Step Cycle - Google Drawing link

3 Step Sequence - Google Drawing link

4 Step Sequence - Google Drawing link

6 Step Sequence - Google Drawing link

4 Circle Web - Google Drawing link

5 Circle Web - Google Drawing link

6 Circle Web - Google Drawing link

9 Circle Web - Google Drawing link

Conclusion

If you have any of your own Google Drawing graphic organizers, please consider sharing them in the comments below. Or if you have a request for a diagram, let me know and I will be glad to create it and add it to the collection for everyone to use.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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30 Free Google Drawings Graphic Organizers

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Several years ago when I started making webinars, my first one was on creating Graphic Organizers with Google Drawings. This was before I had started the this blog, so I never really shared all of that information in an official blog post. Until now...

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Faster Feedback with Editing in Google Docs

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Faster Feedback with Editing in Google Docs

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Faster Feedback: Create Editing Shortcuts in Google Docs

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It definitely helps that I am a skilled typist. I also keep the scope of my feedback narrow, so I am not trying to correct everything in one real-time editing station. In a single real-time editing session I might focus on their thesis statements, topic sentences, analysis, or citations.

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As awesome as Google tools are for students, teachers, and schools, sometimes they can lack a feature or tool you need for your specific subject area. A common area for this concern is in mathematics. Math teachers may sometimes feel that their content and specialized symbols aren't always so easy to transfer over from the convenience of paper and pencil to the uniqueness of a digital environment.

While no solution is even going to be perfect, the good news is that there are many digital tools that can be used in the Google Apps world on Chromebooks, PCs, and Macs, that help address the needs of math students and teachers. In this blog post we are going to highlight 21 such tools. They include Chrome Web Extensions, Chrome Web Apps, and Add-ons for Docs, Sheets, and Forms. In each case they add some extra functionality that is not normally available in the standard Google tools.

Hopefully these tools will help you and your students to learn and explore math more effectively in a digital world. Moreover, many of the extensions, apps, and add-ons will actually increase your students' options for collaboration, critical thinking, inquiry, and exploration of mathematical concepts.

Entering math expressions

1) Equatio extension
Chrome webstore link
Equatio is a Chrome web extension that makes it easier to create and insert mathematical symbols and expressions, as well as scientific formulas when using Google Docs, Forms, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings. With Equatio you can enter math and science writing in five ways: Equation Editor, LaTeX Editor, Handwriting Recognition, Speech Input, and Symbol Galleries.

For more details, see my post "Equatio: Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms!" - Blog post link

Geometry and graphing

2) Geogebra Math Apps
Chrome web app link
GeoGebra is an interactive, dynamic math program that provides tools for geometry, algebra, spreadsheets, graphing, statistics and calculus. You can save your creations to Drive, and can access hundreds of thousands of shared resources at https://www.geogebra.org/materials

3) Desmos Graphing Calculator
Chrome web app link
Desmos is an easy-to-use but powerful graphing tool that handles graphing, variable sliders, tables, statistics, zooming, points of interest, inequalities, and more.

4) RoboCompass
Chrome web app link
This web app is a virtual version of geometric constructions. You can select and order commands to use the compass and straightedge to create circles, angles, polygons, bisectors, and other constructions.

5) Tinkercad
Chrome web app link
Tinkercad is a 3D modeling web app that lets you build with a wide range of three-dimensional shapes, and then modify the solids' size, shape, color, and other attributes. Finished products can be saved and sent to your 3D printer.

Charts and Stats

6) Plotly
Chrome web app link
Plotly makes it easy to create line graphs, bar charts, heatmaps, histograms, box plots and more; import data from files and Google Drive; analyze data with fits, functions, stats, and more; and collaborate and share projects.

7) Statistics
Google Sheets add-on link
This is an add-on for Google Sheets that does statistical analysis of your data including summarizing a single variable (histograms, means and standard deviations, and frequency distributions), summarizing the relationships between pairs of variables (scatterplots, contingency tables, stacked boxplots), and fitting a regression model.

8) WebPlotDigitizer
Chrome web app link
WebPlotDigitizer is a reverse graphing tool. You start by importing any image with a graph or a scale, and then use the web app to identify the graph line and extract the numerical data from image. The tool can also be used on images with a scale to measure simple distance and angles. This is a great to work backwards from a graph to study the underlying data.

9) Random Generator
Google Sheets add-on link
This add-on for Google Sheets can create datasets of random information including numbers, dates, text, true/false, and more. This can be a useful way to generate data when investigating probability and data analysis.

Measuring tools

10) MB-Ruler for Chrome
Chrome web extension link
This extension gives you a pop-up protractor that overlays your screen. You can move, rotate, and resize the floating protractor as needed to measure any angle. There is also an option to create a resizable grid overlay for your screen.

11) Edge: The Web Ruler
Chrome web app link
This web app launches a floating ruler which can be moved and resized as needed. Options include choice of unit (inches, centimeters, or pixels), vertical or horizontal orientation, and always on top mode.

Calculators

12) Calculator
Chrome web app link
This is Google's official calculator app for Chrome OS. It is a clean and simple calculator with 29-functions for basic arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry and discrete math.

13) GED Calculator
Chrome web app link
This is scientific calculator app is unique for its focus on fractions. You can directly enter fractions, as well as perform operations with fractions, convert between fractions and decimals, convert between mixed numbers and fractions, and more.

14) Basic Calculator
Chrome web app link
When they say "Basic" they really mean it! A very simple 4-function calculator app.

15) Melanto Calculator Extension
Chrome web extension link
This is a simple-to-use pop-up calculator with standard and scientific functions.

Math interactives for lower grades

16) Geoboard
Chrome web app link
This app provides you with virtual geoboards and rubber bands to make line segments and polygons to investigate perimeter, area, angles, congruence, fractions, and more.

17) Pattern Shapes
Chrome web app link
This apps gives you unlimited virtual pattern blocks in seven different shapes. Students can place and rotate shapes, build larger shapes, explore symmetry, make patterns, measure angles with a virtual protractor, and more.

18) Number Pieces
Chrome web app link
With this app you and your students can use virtual base ten unit blocks with ones, tens, and hundreds, to represent multi-digit numbers, regrouping, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.

19) Money Pieces
Chrome web app link
This web app lets you and your students work with virtual coins and bills including representing money, showing money value as area models, converting money into different units, annotating, and more.

20) Fractions
Chrome web app link
This web app lets you and your students create fractions with denominators from 1 to 100 using circle and bar shapes. These fraction visualizations can be colored in, labeled, moved, superimposed, and more to represent, compare, and perform operations on the fractions.

Conclusion

Hopefully you have discovered some new tools to try out, or have been reminded of a tool you have been meaning to dig deeper into. Use the comments below to share how you and your students use these tools, as well as share any other of your favorite math extensions, web apps, or add-ons not mentioned in the post.

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20 Chrome Extensions, Web Apps, and Add-ons for Math

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As awesome as Google tools are for students, teachers, and schools, sometimes they can lack a feature or tool you need for your specific subject area. A common area for this concern is in mathematics.

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Did you hear? There's something new from Google that can get your students exploring the world (without ever leaving their seats)! Read on to learn about this powerful new tool.

Introducing Tour Creator

Today Google is introducing Tour Creator. Head to vr.google.com/tourcreator right now. Run, don't walk! Once you've arrived at the site you will notice a pretty purple surprise waiting for you. A little button that will get your heart racing as your dopamine levels spike. Does that say, Get Started to create your own virtual tour? Yes, it does. Does this mean that you can click it and actually create your own virtual experience, like Tour Builder , except in VR? That you can add your own 360° images, add your own content, take your students on a personally crafted experience to match your class topic of inquiry or study? Yes to all of the above! Now you can create your own custom adventures for your students to explore!

The Wait Is Over

One of the top requests Google has heard from educators is the ability to create their own Expeditions, and they listened! For several months Google has been testing a beta program for Expeditions allowing teachers and students to capture and curate unique virtual tours. If you were not a part of the beta program but have been patiently waiting for this capability to be opened up to the public, the wait is over - Tour Creator is now open for all to use!

Create Your Own 360° Content Now

Using Tour Creator, you can easily create your own virtual tour using footage from a 360° camera or even curate photos from the vast collection found on Street View . Not only can you add 360° footage, but you can annotate the images with your own custom content. You can then publish to Poly (again, the magic purple button) for your tour to be viewed via the web or in VR by loading the published URL on a mobile device and placing it in Cardboard . It has been confirmed by Google that they will be adding the ability to import these tours directly into the Expeditions application later this year.

It's time to activate your students and get them exploring and creating their own virtual tours using Tour Creator today! Google has asked educators to get started by, "showing us what makes your community special and why you #LoveWhereYouLive!" Read more in this official blog post from Google .

Dee Lanier
Program Coordinator
EdTechTeam

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Build Your Own Adventure: Tour Creator for Google Expeditions is Here! - EdTechTeam

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Did you hear? There's something new from Google that can get your students exploring the world (without ever leaving their seats)! Read on to learn about this powerful new tool. Today Google is introducing Tour Creator. Head to vr.google.com/tourcreator right now. Run, don't walk!

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3 Screencastify Features You (Probably) Didn’t Know About – Jake Miller

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3 Screencastify Features You (Probably) Didn’t Know About – Jake Miller

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Screencastify is my favorite "lightweight" screen recording tool. I prefer it because 1) it works on Chromebooks, 2) it syncs to Drive and 3) it has all 3 important options (webcam, screen and webcam + screen). Recently, I discovered 3 features that I hadn't realized were there - and I'm guessing you hadn't either. So, here we go!

1. Move, Resize & toggle the webcam

I believe that including webcam video in a screencast is best practice. However, it doesn't need to be there for the entire video and sometimes it gets in the way. So, in Screencastify's Tab Recording mode, it's super convenient that you can toggle the webcam off, resize it and move it - mid-recording! You can also flip the camera, which is nice if you need to hold up something with text on it or, you know, if you have a non-symmetrical hairstyle. 🤪 Note that (currently) you cannot customize your webcam in Desktop Recording Mode.

2. Cursor effects

If you're recording a tutorial on your computer, cursor effects-like click animations or highlighting the cursor-are essential. They're available in both Desktop and Tab Recording Mode.

3. Switch tabs

Tab Recording Mode is nice for a number of reasons: it lets you reference things "off camera," lets you customize the webcam window (see above), creates smaller file sizes and lets your computer run more smoothly. But, what if you realize that you need to record a different tab mid-video? Just click on the extension and select "Record This Tab."

Note: I learned of many of these features on Screencastify's blog.

Published by

Jake Miller

Jake is the host of the Educational Duct Tape podcast, the #EduGIF Guy, a Tech Integration Coach, speaker, Former STEM, Math & Science Teacher, and a presenter. View all posts by Jake Miller

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3 Screencastify Features You (Probably) Didn't Know About

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Screencastify is my favorite "lightweight" screen recording tool. I prefer it because 1) it works on Chromebooks, 2) it syncs to Drive and 3) it has all 3 important options (webcam, screen and webcam + screen). Recently, I discovered 3 features that I hadn't realized were there - and I'm guessing you hadn't either.

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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A Simple Checklist For Teaching In The 21st Century

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A Simple Checklist For Teaching In The 21st Century

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by TeachThought Staff

What are the kind of things a 21st-century teacher needs to know and be able to do?

What about 21st-century students? What education technology works, and what is a waste of time? What would a checklist for 21st-century teaching look like?

Does '21st-century teaching' even make sense to use as a phrase anymore? If not, do we just say 'teaching'? Does that fit our needs to innovate our collective profession to meet a modern circumstance?

These are among the questions today's teachers have to face daily-in the classroom, mass media, professional development, and more. These conversations can get complex, opinionated, stuffed with rhetoric, and downright overwhelming at times. In response, Sylvia Duckworth has made consistent contributions to this conversation by creating colorful illustrations that communicate many of these ideas in easy-to-skim, easy-on-the-eyes, tempting to pin and share graphics.

The above graphic gets at the idea of modern teaching through a simple checklist-ten items, all positive in nature, and actionable by almost any teacher. We've added a bit to each 'check' with an extension or resource below.

A Checklist For 21st Century Teachers

1. My students have opportunities to be creative.

Consider: 25 Of The Best iPad Apps To Promote Creativity In Students

2. My students are allowed to display their learning in different ways.

Consider: Another way to think about this is to think of it as publishing their learning-even designing lessons by thinking 'publishing backward': What sorts of ideas and work and collaboration should be published, and how can I help students do so?

3. My students document and reflect on their learning, exchange ideas, and collaborate with others,

Consider: It doesn't have to be blogging necessarily-using the QFT in Project-Based Learning presents countless opportunities to publish artifacts of authentic work.

4. My students have digital portfolios to display their progress and to curate their best (or most important) work.

Consider: 5 Reasons To Use Digital Portfolios In The Classroom

5. Guests are invited into our classroom (virtually) to broaden our knowledge and global perspective.

Consider: This is often reduced to the tools of invitation (e.g., Zoom) but it's more crucial to consider the purpose of invitation (e.g., what is this connection about, and what tangible ways can this improve student understanding?)

6. My students are aware of how to be safe online and how to be good digital citizens.

Consider: Make sure students understand what digital citizenship (beyond being 'polite' online) actually is/means before admonishing them to demonstrate it.

7. I model good citizenship by being present online and by connecting with others on social media.

Consider: Create an easy way for any student to contact you at any time online. This doesn't mean you have to answer instantly or be 'open' 24/7, but general accessibility is part of any kind of working 'relationship.'

8. I make an effort to connect face-to-face with other educators at conferences.

Consider: Step out of your comfort zone. Walk up to someone you see standing alone and say hello. Ask a question. Follow-up on something someone else says in smaller sessions and workshops.

9. I model a growth mindset by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things.

Consider: 9 Statements That Reflect A Growth Mindset

10. I believe that I would enjoy being a student in my class.

Consider:If not, what should you change and how quickly can you do it?
A Checklist For 21st Century Teachers; From Creativity To Assessment, A Checklist For Today's Teachers

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From Creativity To Assessment, A Checklist For Teachers Today

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by TeachThought Staff What are the kind of things a 21st-century teacher needs to know and be able to do? What about 21st-century students? What education technology works, and what is a waste of time? What would a checklist for 21st-century teaching look like? Does '21st-century teaching' even make sense to use as a phrase anymore?

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Train your brain with our printable Sodoku puzzles, printable word searches and printable mazes.

Enjoy booklets of printable Sudoku puzzles in various difficulty levels. Each booklet has 80 printable Sudoku puzzles total with 4 per page.
Just pick a Sudoku difficulty level, pick any booklet and enjoy.
Enjoy the largest collection of over 14,500 free printable word search puzzles online. Pick your puzzle, print it out then find the words going diagonal, up, down, left or right to beat the word search puzzle. All word search puzzles include a solution that you can print out as well.

We also have a daily word search based on the news for the day and a daily random topic word search to keep the logic going.

You can also subscribe to our daily word search newsletter here if you want new word search puzzles every day.
To get started, pick a puzzle to print below.
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Enjoy booklets of printable mazes in various shapes and difficulty levels. Each booklet has 20 printable mazes.
Just pick a maze difficulty level, pick any booklet and enjoy.
Start toying with your mind with these mind bending riddles and brain teasers. Enjoy all the best riddles form easy to hard.
Just pick section below to start teasing your brain.

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Logic Lovely - because logic is lovely for the brain. Train your brain with our printable Sodoku puzzles, printable word searches and printable mazes. Browse Printable Sudoku Puzzles Enjoy booklets of printable Sudoku puzzles in various difficulty levels. Each booklet has 80 printable Sudoku puzzles total with 4 per page.

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Better Feedback with Google Slides Commenting - Teacher Tech

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Better Feedback with Google Slides Commenting - Teacher Tech

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Google Slides now allows you to make comments on specific parts of a text on a slide rather than the whole text box. Highlight a word or phrase within a textbox and add a comment just on that word or phrase.

Feedback

Specific feedback that is actionable is highly effective for learning. I love to use Google Slides to have students share their learning, especially using a SINGLE Google Slides presentation with all students on the same Google Slides. Like in Google Docs you can insert feedback notes to the side of the document. However, until now you could only give those feedback comments on the entire textbox. You can now select a portion of the text and add a feedback comment just like you could in Google Docs. I use the keyboard shortcut Control Alt M to insert a comment and Control Enter to save it.

Do Not Use Google Docs

Of course I use Google text Docs, but I would like to challenge you that oftentimes Google Slides is a superior medium for what we are asking students to do in a Google text document. Slides are multi-media. Each slide has a unique URL that allows students to link you directly to the part of their work they want you to review. Essay writing I would do in a Google Doc, but other than that.... probably you want to use Google Slides (or Forms, Forms are awesome.) My only hesitation up until now about saying USE GOOGLE SLIDES INSTEAD was the lack of ability to comment on specific parts of a text. Now that this feature has come to Slides.... USE GOOGLE SLIDES!

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Better Feedback with Google Slides Commenting

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Google Slides now allows you to make comments on specific parts of a text on a slide rather than the whole text box. Highlight a word or phrase within a textbox and add a comment just on that word or phrase. Specific feedback that is actionable is highly effective for learning.

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Tool Wall - By @EricDe_La_Rosa - Teacher Tech

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Tool Wall - By @EricDe_La_Rosa - Teacher Tech

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I was recently in Eric De La Rosa's office and noticed his whiteboard tool wall. I tweeted a picture; there was a demand for the entire wall. Eric generously took a new picture to share with all of you. Give him a follow on Twitter: @EricDe_La_Rosa

Padlet

You may be thinking, Alice my eyes are squinting here to get all of these awesome tools on this picture. No worries, Eric has you on that one too! He has compiled the list into a Padlet!

Eric's Tool Wall Padlet

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I was recently in Eric De La Rosa's office and noticed his whiteboard tool wall. I tweeted a picture; there was a demand for the entire wall. Eric generously took a new picture to share with all of you.

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Almost daily teachers are bombarded with shiny new apps designed for education. It can be enough to make our heads spin. We WANT to use technology that is meaningful and manageable for ourselves and our students.

We don't want "one more thing".

Technology, when used with purpose can have incredible effects on student learning. We are able to teach and students are able to learn in ways we never thought possible. We can create learning experiences we never could have before.
How do we wade through all of the options to find the tools that will work for our own classes?
And how can we help get our reluctant colleagues onboard and excited about technology in the classroom?

In a recent Twitter chat moderated by Scott Titmas and Karly Moura , the #DitchBook community came out in full force to provide TONS of tried and true tech tools along tips for integrating them with purpose.

Check them out in the summary of this week's chat below!

Want to get in on the next #DitchBook Twitter chat?

Having trouble? Still unclear on how a Twitter chat works? Feel free to tweet to these #DitchBook ambassadors and they'll help - Karly Moura @karlymoura , Sean Fahey @seanjfahey , Sandy Otto @sandyrotto , Rachel Marker @rachelmarker , Evan Mosier @emosier3 , Mandi Tolen @TTmomTT , Craig Klement @craigklement , Tara Martin @taramartinedu , Krista Harmsworth @zonie71 , Anne Kamper @annekamper , Rayna Freedman @rlfreedm , Lance McClard @drmcclard , Stephanie DeMichele @sdemichele or David Platt @herrplatt!

Meaningful EdTech - Curated tweets by DitchThatTxtbk
For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail! Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:
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40+ ideas for making technology integration meaningful

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Almost daily teachers are bombarded with shiny new apps designed for education. It can be enough to make our heads spin. We WANT to use technology that is meaningful and manageable for ourselves and our students. We don't want "one more thing". Technology, when used with purpose can have incredible effects on student learning.

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Monthly updates of tech integration by content area

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Some key goals for literacy are reading comprehension, being able to identify main ideas, and summarization skills. There are many excellent practices that can help students develop these abilities.

Recently I came across a creative technique called " Text Reduction Strategy" ( see the article here by Andrea Heick at TeachThought). I really liked the idea, but also felt it could be made even better with a Google Docs technology twist.

The original idea goes like this...

Students are given a magazine article and a black marker.

They are instructed to read the article and decide what text is critical to the main point of the article and what text is not.

Next they use the marker to black out any text that is not critical, leaving behind just the main ideas.

The benefit of this activity is that students do not have to come up with their own words to summarize the article. Instead all the words are already there, and they are just using their critical thinking skills to determine what is most important. This can be a helpful stepping stone to improving their reading comprehension while working toward better summarization skills.
As much as I love the idea, I thought it would be great to take it a step further and use technology rather that physical paper magazines and black markers. This activity works great in Google Docs, and even picks up a few added benefits by going digital. See below for full directions on how to do this.

Step 1 - Find an article

First of all you will need an article for your students to read. There are so many excellent websites that provide current event and high interest articles for students. Some are specific to certain grade levels, while others provide multiple versions of their articles at different lexile levels so students of all ages can engage with the writing. A few great sites to consider for articles include:

Step #2 - Put the article in Google Docs

For this step you will need to copy and paste the text of the article into a Google Document. However, there are a few tips that can make this easier and can produce a cleaner final product.

First, if the article is on a webpage that also has lots of other text, comments, or sidebar information, it might be difficult to select just the text from the article itself. One option would be to use a "webpage clean up tool" such as the Mercury Reader extension for Google Chrome (or any of the many other "clean up" extensions). This can remove all the extra text, so just the article is left to be copied.

Install the Mercury Reader extension from the Chrome Web Store - Chrome extension link

Open the website with the article you want to copy.

Click the Mercury Reader extension icon in your top menu bar.

The webpage will now be cleaned up, so that all the ads and extra content is removed, leaving just the text of the main article.

You can now select the article text and copy it. For example, to copy you can press "Ctrl" and "C", or right-click and choose "Copy".

A second tip to consider is a better way to paste the article text into your Google Doc. Normally when you copy and paste text from a website into a Doc, it brings with it whatever formatting the text had, such as font, color, size, and such. For this "black out" activity, it is best for the text to be as plain and simple as possible with no extra formatting at all. Thankfully there is an easy way to paste just the copied text, and no formatting.

First copy the text as explained earlier.

Next click inside of the Google Doc.

Or click "Edit" and "Paste without formatting"

Or right click and choose "Paste without formatting"

The copied text will now be pasted into the Google Doc as plain text with no special formatting.

Step #3 - Share the Google Doc with your students

If you want each of your students to do the "black out" activity, they will each need their own copy of the Google Doc with the article text. You can do this a couple different ways:

First, you could push out a copy to each student through Google Classroom.

Go to Google Classroom as normal.

Click the button to "Create assignment".

Fill in the details for the assignment.

Click the Google Drive icon and choose the Google Doc with the article text.

From the drop-down menu to the right, choose "Make a copy for each student".

Finally click "Assign" and each student will get their own copy of the Google Doc to work on.

If you are not using Google Classroom, a second option would be to share the Google Doc with your students with view only rights.

Click the big blue Share button in the top right corner of the Google Doc.

When the "Share with others" window opens, click "Get sharable link" in the top right corner.

This will generate a link that will allow others to view the document. Provide this link to your students through email, or on your class website, or with a shortened URL, or such.

When the students open the shared Doc they can make their own copy by clicking "File" and "Make a copy".

Step #4 - Students "Black Out" the article

At this point the students can do the "Black Out" activity. They need to read the article and decide what text is critical to the main point of the article and what text is not. Their goal is to black out any text that is not critical, leaving behind just the main ideas. In Google Docs this can be done by using the built-in highlighter tool, but choosing black for the color. Here's how:

Select the text you want to black out.

Click the "Text color" button in the top toolbar.

Click the "Highlight" option in the drop-down menu.

Click the black color option.

The selected text will now be blacked out.

Repeat this process for other text throughout the document as needed.

To save some time, you can also use the " Paint format" tool to quickly apply the black highlighting to other sections of text (special thanks to Amy Farris for this great tip!)

First select some text that is already highlighted black.

Next double-click on the "Paint format" button to the top menu bar. Double-clicking will "lock in" the copied formatting.

Now simply select any other text in the document and the black highlighting will automatically be applied to it.

When done, just click the "Paint format" button again to turn it off.

If you think you made a mistake and want to remove the black out from some text, you can do that.

First, click and drag your mouse to select the blacked out text.

When you do this, the black highlighting will turn slightly lighter, which will allow you to read the blacked out text.

If you find some text you want to remove the black out from, select just that text.

Then click the "Text color" button in the top toolbar.

Click the "Highlight" option in the drop-down menu.

Click the "None" option.

The black highlighting will be removed from that text and it will appear normal and visible again.

When the student is finished the Google Doc will have blacked out text for a large amount of the content, leaving just the most important information visible. This might be just topic sentences, or key phrases, or such.

The students could then share their final products with their teacher, or with other students. Black out articles from different students could be compared to see what different classmates thought was most important.

As an example, here is a Google Doc with an original article about spiders - Google Doc link

Now here is a version with blacked out text, leaving just the most important information behind (at least in my opinion for this example) - Google Doc link

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the start, I really like the "Text Reduction Strategy" as a way to help students develop reading comprehension and summarization skills. However, I think there are some great benefits to doing the activity digitally with Google Docs. Some of the benefits include:

No need for multiple copies of magazines.

No waste, since there are no magazines to be thrown away when done.

Ability to remove the black out from text if a mistake is made or the student changes their mind about what to black out.

Easy for students to share their work with others.

Easy to display final products online or projected for the class to see and discuss.

This process can also be extended to other texts and purposes, such as "Black Out Poetry" where the students try to create poems by blacking out all the words from a text sample except for what they leave behind to make the poem.
If you try this with your students, or come up with other ways to use or improve this process, please share your ideas and experiences in the comments below.

Post by Eric Curts. Connect with Eric on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs "Black Out"

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Some key goals for literacy are reading comprehension, being able to identify main ideas, and summarization skills. There are many excellent practices that can help students develop these abilities. Recently I came across a creative technique called " Text Reduction Strategy" ( see the article here by Andrea Heick at TeachThought).

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Teach & Learn Practical Digital Skills - Applied Digital Skills

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Thousands of teachers and students are using Applied Digital Skills to improve digital literacy, and we're adding new lessons regularly. Join us and start learning or teaching digital skills today.

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Easy Citations in Google Docs – Jake Miller

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Easy Citations in Google Docs – Jake Miller

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Digital citizens are constantly sharing other people's content. We are all cultivators of stuff. Images, quotes, GIFs, artwork, you name it - we share it. It is very important that we teach kids to give credit where credit's due.

Unfortunately, students are very resistant to citing their sources when they do schoolwork. Why? I believe it's because it's a pain to do so. Who would want to cite their source if you have to do tons of sleuth work to figure out who the original source really was? Who would want to cite their source if you have to enter a boatload of information into a separate site to prepare the citation to put in your document?

In my book, the goal for students, especially those in middle school, should simply be to get them to cite their sources. I'm not going to stress out about if it really is the accurate original source. I also wouldn't stress about them correctly placing their periods and commas in their MLA citation. I just want them to recognize that the content is not their own and that the originator deserves credit. Google Docs makes that easy with two tools. Let's check them out . . .

Using the Explore Tool in Google Docs

This will only work for resources on the web (not books), but it's super easy to use. It creates footnotes, which I've heard aren't commonly used in K-12 writing. However, as you'll see in this animation, you can easily copy those footnotes and turn them into a Works Cited. Check out this #EduGIF to see how ( Pausable #EduGIF available here):

Using the EasyBib Add-On

This tool is great for citing books, but not as good at citing websites. It keeps track of your entire bibliography until you're ready to add it to your doc. If you are using the Explore tool for your websites, you can just combine them when you're done, just like I do in the #EduGIF animation below. ( Pausable #EduGIF available here)
Disclaimer: I've heard from a few sources that these two tools do not always produce 100% accurate citations. In my opinion, as stated above, this is a risk that I'm willing to take, at least until students are in college prep high school courses.
Published by

Jake Miller

Jake is the host of the Educational Duct Tape podcast, the #EduGIF Guy, a Tech Integration Coach, speaker, Former STEM, Math & Science Teacher, and a presenter. View all posts by Jake Miller

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Digital citizens are constantly sharing other people's content. We are all cultivators of stuff. Images, quotes, GIFs, artwork, you name it - we share it. It is very important that we teach kids to give credit where credit's due. Unfortunately, students are very resistant to citing their sources when they do schoolwork.

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📚 Tech Integration Updates - ELA, ELL and Languages - Google Docs

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📚 Tech Integration Updates - ELA, ELL and Languages - Google Docs

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📚 Tech Integration Updates - ELA, ELL and Languages

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Transform Instructional Design to Shift Towards Personalized Learning

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Binder of grade/subject level Hyperocs for classroom use

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Binder of grade/subject level hyperdocs for classroom use

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17 Little-Known Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Using Google in the Classroom | EdSurge News

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17 Little-Known Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Using Google in the Classroom | EdSurge News

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17 Little-Known Tips, Tricks and Hacks for Using Google in the Classroom - EdSurge News

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Here's a slightly Orwellian way to check whether your students may have plagiarized part of their essays: the Chrome extension Draftback, which plays back the revision history of any Google doc you can edit-down to the keystroke.

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Each of the courses in this collection has multiple sections with activities, videos, and resources. There are interactive tools and exemplars to allow teachers to gain a better sense of what is expected, and how they might be implemented. These courses promote using the online environment to guide the interaction and collaboration of your Professional Learning Community (PLC) to improve student learning.

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Online plc. Online plc pussy pictures pics xxx jasmin video pics.

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Specific examples

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When assessing an educational software product, we often consider how it impacts student learning: what benefits will students reap as a result of using the platform? However, we often neglect how technology changes instruction. Teachers who introduce software in their classrooms are surprised to find that their teaching practices evolve in relation to what features the platform makes available to them and what insights the data from the software provides.

Digital reading is no exception to this rule. Adopting Actively Learn fundamentally changes how teachers scaffold material, how they present questions for their students, how they communicate with and provide feedback to students, and what they learn about their students' reading habits. All this leads to a new way of interacting with the material you assign and with your students.

Of course, not every teacher will necessarily find his or her instruction transformed by Actively Learn. Many of the changes described here depend on how extensively the platform is used. So a teacher who only uses Actively Learn for occasional independent reading will experience fewer benefits than the teacher who has consistently adopted the platform for all class reading.

Nevertheless, we wanted to give you an idea of the potential impact that our platform could have for your instruction. Read on to learn how you could be teaching more effectively and engaging your students more deeply with Actively Learn.

1. With instruction embedded in the text, the focus of class time becomes discussion

Prior to adopting Actively Learn, teachers spend class time explaining concepts found in the text. Class time is their opportunity to clarify main ideas, ask questions about the material, and make connections between the text and other themes being studied. This is a natural result of the fact that students are on their own as they read: reading is to be done for homework, and instruction is introduced the following day.

Because Actively Learn enables teachers to embed explanatory content and questions directly in the text, teachers find that the focus of class time changes once they transition to digital reading. The points they had previously made while students were in class have already been presented in the reading. This means that class time is reallocated to a highly valuable activity: group discussion. Instead of hearing their own voice dominate class time, teachers hear the voices of students as they share their perspectives on the content, respond to in-text discussion threads, and follow up on the annotations provided for them in the margins. The instruction embedded in the text prepares students for discussion and serves as a jumping-off point for conversation.

Dr. Deborah March, an upper-school English teacher, describes how embedding media and hyperlinks in the text inspires conversation among her students: "Students can click on links to learn more and respond to notes with their own thoughts, so that my in-text guidance prompts active engagement instead of passive reception. It is no longer this asymmetrical imbalance of enthusiasm, with me lecturing excitedly to silent students who, at best, obediently write down what they hear. Instead, I'm thrilled to see my kids taking the cues and clues I leave for them in Actively Learn--and going in directions I sometimes couldn't have anticipated."

"I'm thrilled to see my kids taking the cues and clues I leave for them in Actively Learn-and going in directions I sometimes couldn't have anticipated."

- Dr. Deborah March

Students begin to take a greater role in shaping classroom discussion, which leads to increased engagement in the material and a more dynamic academic environment.

2. Instruction is informed and guided by student questions, comments, and performance data

When teaching with paper, teachers prepare for class not knowing what their students understood from their reading, which means that instruction is disconnected from what students need help with and what they are most interested in. The teacher's lesson could be completely derailed because students did not comprehend what the teacher expected them to. The teacher also misses out on the potential to truly engage students by discussing what they found to be most compelling in the text.

Teachers who use Actively Learn, on the other hand, walk into class knowing what their students thought as they read. They've seen their students' "I don't understand" flags, their responses to questions, and their annotations. They've also seen where students concentrated their discussion threads and the conversations that have already begun prior to class. This information is a rich resource from which to draw when preparing for instruction. Some teachers discover that what they had planned on discussing was already obvious to students, while other parts of the text created confusion or debate.

"I have examples of students engaging in the text by having real time conversations, either in their head or with a peer that I was never privy to before," describes Monica Witzke, an 8th grade ELA teacher. "I can see what they are thinking and then I can make a decision as a teacher... Do I need to jump in now to correct their misunderstanding? How much do I jump in? Will they begin to correct themselves as they read further? This is 'data driven' instruction unlike what we have been able to do in the past."

"This is 'data driven' instruction unlike what we have been able to do in the past."

- Monica Witzke

Looking at this more broadly, teachers who use Actively Learn on a regular basis can see data from their students' performance and know which skills and content areas their students need help with. These teachers know, for example, that their students have a good grasp of character development but a poor record of performance on analysis of an argument. They can see that student comprehension is lagging in a particular unit relative to previous months. All this helps teachers cater their lessons to what students really need to work on, as opposed to throwing darts in the dark.

3. Teachers can differentiate instruction based on data

Differentiating instruction in a paper-based classroom is tricky. Teachers don't want to publicly single out students who are struggling, and they may not have a good grasp of which students are struggling in the first place and what skills or content areas they need the most help with.

Teachers using Actively Learn, however, know what supports their students need. The data shows them which students are struggling and gives them actionable insights into the areas that students need help with. These teachers can then use extra help notes to give those particular students the support they need, while omitting it for those who don't. This leads to more effective instruction that targets students' strengths and weaknesses.

Dr. March describes the way she is able to address individual student challenges with Actively Learn: "When I talk to a struggling student after class, having his or her Actively Learn responses handy is almost always helpful. Many of my students who find the reading difficult offer unhelpfully vague descriptions of the problem, often out of shame and confusion. 'I didn't get it.' 'It makes no sense.' It hurts to see my kids so frustrated, but their general complaints make it unlikely I'll address the particular issue that's keeping them from succeeding. Actively Learn offers a great starting point; we can look at specific low-scoring responses together and discuss what went wrong. Because I'm able to categorize questions by particular standards, we can also look at broader patterns: does the student struggle with main idea questions? Do 'meaning and evidence' questions trip him or her up? Having that data at my fingertips puts me in a great position to give my students the help they need."

"Having that data at my fingertips puts me in a great position to give my students the help they need."

- Dr. Deborah March

The conversation between the teacher, the student, and potentially the student's parents becomes more targeted and effective when teachers know exactly where students struggle.

4. Teachers can ask higher-level questions

With paper-based texts, the teacher's assessment is often geared to ensuring that students have done their reading and that they have attained a basic understanding of the material. This often manifests in lower-level questions that target recall and summary rather than analysis and critical thinking.

Actively Learn takes care of basic comprehension and task completion by monitoring student activity and allowing teachers to insert instruction in the margins. Teachers know that students are doing the work, and they've provided supports that ensure that students have understood the material. The purpose of assessment, then, is redefined to emphasize higher-level thinking. Instead of asking students to summarize what has happened in their reading, teachers can feel confident asking students to assess the author's purpose or connect themes across different texts. Teachers are able to get to more rigorous questions much faster than they can with paper texts.

"I think the biggest thing that Actively Learn has done for me is really challenged me as a teacher to be better at asking questions," explains Liz Jones, 7th grade Social Studies teacher. "It challenges me to give [my students] a meatier, higher depth of knowledge question that they can spend time on and think critically about. I feel like it's taught me as a teacher to question better and to pull that critical thinking out of my students."

"I feel like [Actively Learn] has taught me as a teacher to question better and to pull that critical thinking out of my students."

- Liz Jones

These deeper questions enable your students to think more deeply, and for your discussions in class to be much richer. This is the sort of learning that we strive to facilitate, and that we hope you will also experience in your classroom when using Actively Learn.

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Google Keep is a note-taking service developed by Google.

There is no doubt about the utility of the apps and tools that Google presents. It has something in store for everyone or rather I should say every tool by Google can benefit everyone. Google Keep is one tool that has been discussed lately so when we explored the tool we were amazed as it offers some amazing features that can help educators in multiple ways personally and professionally. The pointers below will help educators use this tool in the possible ways. Find out how:

1. Create Notes & Lists

Ideally Google keep is for this one thing only it's just the varied way you can do the same. The tool allows you to create notes alone or in collaboration with other, share them, sort then by color or add labels to categorize multiple notes (this can be beneficial for educators taking more than one subject at a time). Also because Google keep works in sync with Goggle docs it would help educators in the research work or the content that they create. You can put important ideas - or even individual facts - in separate Keep notes. In a new Google Doc, click Tools > Keep notepad and drag their ideas and facts from Keep into the doc.

2. Create Reminders

There is no need to set reminders in separate calendars. Easily set reminders in the keep along with the information the reminder has been set. Again the collaboration feature can remind the other person as well that you have to work together on something important.

3. Grab Image Text

Use Google Keep on a Mobile device or with the webcam/document camera of your computer to insert images that contain text. Google Keep will read the text in the image and convert it to editable text. Now this is awesome! How easier it is to get any piece of text paper on your screen.

4. Send Feedback

Sending feedbacks is another option with keeps. Because collaboration has always been a priority for all the G suite tools, the option to add feedback comes as a byproduct. Here, in Keep feedback can be in the form of comments, text and audio(works only in the app) and can be supported with images.

5. Features That Improves The Utility For Educators:

- Add collaborators: Be it notes or reminders, you can always add collaborators to share the notes which make it of great use for educators. They can either share these notes with fellow teachers to work on something together or with family to make sure the chores are being done on time.

- Change color: The whole concept of colorful digital notes excites me but the usability is that you can categorize notes on different topics and use different colors for each category. Quick and easy way to pick the one you need.

- Add images: This is one innovative thing in the note taking tools. Google keeps allows you to add image with the notes you make.

- Add drawings: It also allows you to draw. Fun!, no?

- Copy to a Google Doc: we already know that educators and students use Google docs for many purposes, hence the tool is an add on. Notes from Google keeps can be copied on docs easily and this makes work for educators a lot easier. Especially when educators have to create reports and type the same thing again, now you can simply paste from the keep easily.

- Search and filter notes: Apart from adding colors to your notes you can label them and easily search them on the basis of the label assigned.

- Pin notes: Pin notes that you use often for quick access.

6. Take Offline Notes

While Google Keep only works online at keep.google.com, the Google Keep mobile app works great online or off. Also, the app offers some extra features like it allows user to jot down notes, ideas or start on a project without needing connection to internet. Also, audio feedbacks can be given via the app.

7. Save Websites To A Note With One Click

Once added to your Google Chrome web browser, you can click the little lightbulb button in the top right corner of your browser to create a note with a link to that website. Type text in the note and give it a label right from the Chrome extension. Then check it out later.

Also watch the video below to get a feel of the tool:

The only drawback I see is that it can get a little confusing for the user to identify various icons for various features. To help you with the same, make sure you watch these tutorial videos by Richard Byrne that will show you how you can use the tool. All in all, this is one must to have tool for the amazing features and the ease it will add.

Make sure you give this tool a try and share your experience with us in the comment section below.

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