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Welcome to my Free Pattern section! Here you'll find projects of all different types that reflect my love of kawaii things. I like to share patterns that are beginner-friendly so newbies can try out sewing without a lot of risk, patterns for established characters since they don't infringe on the creator, and patterns that are...

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In classrooms, hallways, and playgrounds around the country, distracted students are just a hop, skip, and a jump away from regaining focus, say teachers who have created sensory paths to give students a quick brain break.

Popularized by a viral video of a sensory path posted by special education teacher Holly Barker Clay, these indoor or outdoor pathways are composed of visual and tactile elements like sand, shapes, and colored stickers. As students move along the path, they are cued to perform a series of movements to activate different parts of the body and the brain.

"Our students love our sensory paths," says Yanelis Cabaleiro, supervisor of early childhood education at Belleville Public Schools in New Jersey. Need some inspiration for your own sensory path? Here are several ideas collected from Edutopia readers around the country.

A Close Look at Sensory Paths

An engaging sensory path can be created indoors or outdoors. In this video filmed at Aurora Waasakone Community of Learners in Bemidji, Minnesota, the sensory path gives a student a nice break while moving through the hallways.

Looking for an easy and effective-and inexpensive-way to get kids moving? At Melrose Elementary School in Roseburg, Oregon, educators simply painted different shapes in primary colors on the playground's asphalt.

Other educators have made paths using tactile materials that stimulate students' feet or hands, which has a positive impact on their concentration and motor skills. Textured rocks, beads, straw, and grass form a grid path at Walter Shade Early Childhood Center in West Carrollton, Ohio.

Barefoot is best, of course.

During a busy school day, sensory paths can give students a brain break or a chance to practice mindfulness, say teachers. To provide a wide range of sensory experiences, educators at Opportunity Early Childhood Education and Family Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, mixed natural and synthetic materials like smooth rocks, plastic beads, and sand.

When making a paths inside schools, which students can use in any weather, educators have gotten creative with stickers, decals, and colored duct tape. At Wyland Elementary School in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, the sensory path guides students to step on the leaves and the sunflower as they count from 1 to 10.

This sensory path at Wyland is decorated with ladybug decals and written prompts like "Duck walk low" and "Tip toe and reach up high." Students practice following directions while developing proprioception-an awareness of where their bodies are in space.

The frog-themed, zigzag path at Wyland prompts students to jump, training them to develop their sense of balance.

At Belleville Public Elementary School and Hornblower Early Childhood Center in New Jersey, teachers designed a tropical-themed sensory path with mini challenges along the way. To stay away from the alligators in Alligator Alley, students must maintain their balance as they jump from log to log.

Movement is the crucial aspect of a sensory path, but some teachers have also incorporated educational activities in them. This sensory path at Hornblower Early Childhood Center prompts students to review the alphabet while helping the monkey find bananas.

Students say the numbers out loud as they walk through this tropical tree path at Hornblower Early Childhood Center.

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A Hop, Skip, and a Jump: Creating Your Own Sensory Path

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In classrooms, hallways, and playgrounds around the country, distracted students are just a hop, skip, and a jump away from regaining focus, say teachers who have created sensory paths to give students a quick brain break.

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Students can use games to learn money management and financial decision-making.

Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Game-based learning is an engaging and effective way to teach students, and it can be especially useful for teaching students how to manage money because it empowers them to learn from their own decisions. Here are 10 free, popular games for high school students to learn how to navigate their finances.

1. Payback: Payback nudges students to think about how to succeed in college without taking on excessive student debt. Tony Montgomery, a teacher at an alternative high school in New York City, says, "Payback teaches students that it is very important to have a healthy balance between academics, work, and social activities while continuing to manage your debt."

2. Spent: Spent challenges players to survive the struggle of low-income living. Developed by McKinney to raise money for Urban Ministries of Durham, the game has become a hit in financial literacy classrooms. "Spent allows students to truly understand some of the incredibly hard decisions families, living paycheck to paycheck, have to make on a daily basis," says Courtney Poquette, a business educator from Winooski, Vermont.

3. Financial Football: These two fast-paced, sports-themed, interactive games engage students in quiz bowl-style questions to advance players up the field. Both Visa-created games have been recently updated with new questions and graphics and include various levels of difficulty and game lengths to make it easier for teachers to differentiate in the classroom. Players can play against the computer or each other.

4. Shady Sam: Shady Sam demonstrates how loan terms can hurt borrowers who don't pay attention. Players take on the role of a loan shark. The more the customers pay in interest and fees, the higher the score for the game player. Julius Prezelski, a teacher at Mount St. Joseph High School in Maryland, noted that students realize "how the loan game works and how lenders take advantage of consumers."

5. STAX: Amanda Volz, a student at St. Clair High School in Michigan, describes STAX as an "engaging, fast-paced interactive game that allows students to experience 20 years of investing in just 20 minutes... and proves that index investing is always a winner!" This game ignites the emotion that investors often feel while trading during turbulent times. Game players can compete against the computer or against one another.

6. Money Magic: Money Magic is designed to teach basic budgeting principles. The main character, Enzo, represents the human tendency to value short-term gratification. The game challenges students to balance immediate wants with long-term plans. Jacqueline Prester, a Mansfield High School teacher in Massachusetts, loves Money Magic "because it gives my students a fun and competitive way to practice their budgeting skills in a nontraditional environment."

7. The Payoff: In this game, students play the role of a video blogger preparing for a life-changing competition while managing money and unexpected events. The game interface simulates a mobile phone where players can check their bank or open faux websites. The immersive, experiential game requires the user to help their character make smart financial decisions.

8. Hit the Road: A Financial Adventure: This interactive game teaches young people the importance of saving and spending wisely. Students go on a virtual road trip across the country learning how to manage their money wisely. They learn the value of creating a budget, responsible spending, and debt management. I use the game in my special education class because it has straightforward instructions.

9. The Uber Game; In this game, students play the role of a full-time Uber driver-with two kids-who is trying to pay the mortgage. The interactive game, created by the Financial Times, challenges students to face life circumstances of those in the gig economy. Lois Stoll, a veteran Family and Consumer Science teacher from a rural school in Ohio, says, "Seems so easy, right? Just drive a car and earn money in the gig economy! Wait until you try to make the mortgage payment driving an Uber car for a week. Just not as easy as you think!"

10. Credit Clash: Credit Clash is a fun and interactive way to learn about credit scores. Brett Shifrin of the Gould Academy in Maine observed his students learning that when their credit score increased, their future loan payment amounts were reduced because they got loans at lower interest rates. One of his students summarized what he learned, saying, "Taking out multiple loans and being able to pay them all dramatically improves your credit."

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10 Free Financial Literacy Games for High School Students

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Students can use games to learn money management and financial decision-making. Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Game-based learning is an engaging and effective way to teach students, and it can be especially useful for teaching students how to manage money because it empowers them to learn from their own decisions.

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Students can use games to learn money management and financial decision-making.

Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Game-based learning is an engaging and effective way to teach students, and it can be especially useful for teaching students how to manage money because it empowers them to learn from their own decisions. Here are 10 free, popular games for high school students to learn how to navigate their finances.

1. Payback: Payback nudges students to think about how to succeed in college without taking on excessive student debt. Tony Montgomery, a teacher at an alternative high school in New York City, says, "Payback teaches students that it is very important to have a healthy balance between academics, work, and social activities while continuing to manage your debt."

2. Spent: Spent challenges players to survive the struggle of low-income living. Developed by McKinney to raise money for Urban Ministries of Durham, the game has become a hit in financial literacy classrooms. "Spent allows students to truly understand some of the incredibly hard decisions families, living paycheck to paycheck, have to make on a daily basis," says Courtney Poquette, a business educator from Winooski, Vermont.

3. Financial Football: These two fast-paced, sports-themed, interactive games engage students in quiz bowl-style questions to advance players up the field. Both Visa-created games have been recently updated with new questions and graphics and include various levels of difficulty and game lengths to make it easier for teachers to differentiate in the classroom. Players can play against the computer or each other.

4. Shady Sam: Shady Sam demonstrates how loan terms can hurt borrowers who don't pay attention. Players take on the role of a loan shark. The more the customers pay in interest and fees, the higher the score for the game player. Julius Prezelski, a teacher at Mount St. Joseph High School in Maryland, noted that students realize "how the loan game works and how lenders take advantage of consumers."

5. STAX: Amanda Volz, a student at St. Clair High School in Michigan, describes STAX as an "engaging, fast-paced interactive game that allows students to experience 20 years of investing in just 20 minutes... and proves that index investing is always a winner!" This game ignites the emotion that investors often feel while trading during turbulent times. Game players can compete against the computer or against one another.

6. Money Magic: Money Magic is designed to teach basic budgeting principles. The main character, Enzo, represents the human tendency to value short-term gratification. The game challenges students to balance immediate wants with long-term plans. Jacqueline Prester, a Mansfield High School teacher in Massachusetts, loves Money Magic "because it gives my students a fun and competitive way to practice their budgeting skills in a nontraditional environment."

7. The Payoff: In this game, students play the role of a video blogger preparing for a life-changing competition while managing money and unexpected events. The game interface simulates a mobile phone where players can check their bank or open faux websites. The immersive, experiential game requires the user to help their character make smart financial decisions.

8. Hit the Road: A Financial Adventure: This interactive game teaches young people the importance of saving and spending wisely. Students go on a virtual road trip across the country learning how to manage their money wisely. They learn the value of creating a budget, responsible spending, and debt management. I use the game in my special education class because it has straightforward instructions.

9. The Uber Game; In this game, students play the role of a full-time Uber driver-with two kids-who is trying to pay the mortgage. The interactive game, created by the Financial Times, challenges students to face life circumstances of those in the gig economy. Lois Stoll, a veteran Family and Consumer Science teacher from a rural school in Ohio, says, "Seems so easy, right? Just drive a car and earn money in the gig economy! Wait until you try to make the mortgage payment driving an Uber car for a week. Just not as easy as you think!"

10. Credit Clash: Credit Clash is a fun and interactive way to learn about credit scores. Brett Shifrin of the Gould Academy in Maine observed his students learning that when their credit score increased, their future loan payment amounts were reduced because they got loans at lower interest rates. One of his students summarized what he learned, saying, "Taking out multiple loans and being able to pay them all dramatically improves your credit."

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10 Free Financial Literacy Games for High School Students

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Students can use games to learn money management and financial decision-making. Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Game-based learning is an engaging and effective way to teach students, and it can be especially useful for teaching students how to manage money because it empowers them to learn from their own decisions.

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Explore resources and downloads for educators seeking to help students learn financial concepts, practice money management, and build strong financial decision-making and economic-reasoning skills.

Discover Lessons, Simulations, Videos, and Apps

Explore Activities for Grades K-8

Creativity, Candy, and Commerce: Discover how middle school students brought curiosity and passion to learning through the design, manufacture, and marketing of their own signature chocolate bars. (Edutopia, 2015)

Make the Money "Real": Read about a counting-change simulation that gives students experience handling money in the lead-up to handling real transactions. (Edutopia, 2015)

Teaching Toward an Affordable Future: Learn about a program that helps elementary school students learn about personal finance while saving money every week. (Edutopia, 2015)

Elementary Financial Literacy: Lesson Ideas and Resources: Discover how financial literacy can be integrated into elementary English and mathematics, and find a few resources to get started. "Financial Literacy for Elementary Students" is another great list of resources. (Edutopia, 2014)

Teaching Financial Literacy to Middle Schoolers: Explore strategies for integrating financial literacy into middle school curricula and age-appropriate resource suggestions. "Financial Literacy for Middle School Students" is another good source of guidance, information, and resources. (Edutopia, 2014)

Explore Activities for Grades 9-12

Addressing Student, Family, and Community Needs: Find out how one school uses a personal finance class to impart lessons about fiscal responsibility and financial literacy to teens and connect this knowledge to their lives. (Edutopia, 2015)

When Financial Education Hits Close to Home: Read about the Home Ownership project, a real-world project that helped students at Maplewood High School in Nashville, Tennessee, learn about homeownership and the power of personal finance. (Edutopia, 2015)

5-Minute Film Festival: We the Economy: Watch and share 20 short films that explain concepts like debt, money, and supply and demand. (Edutopia, 2015)

Financial Literacy in High School: Necessary and Relevant: Learn how to make financial literacy relevant to students' lives, and find resources for teaching financial literacy skills to high school students. For more guidance, information, and resources, also see "Financial Literacy for High School Students." (Edutopia, 2014)

3 Ways to Enagage High Schoolers in Personal Finance: Discover a few technology-based ways to engage high schoolers in discussions about personal finance. (U.S. News and World Report, 2014)

A Mobile App Lesson on Financial Capability: Check out a lesson on financial capability that makes use of mobile apps, courtesy of Brian Page, a high school personal finance and AP economics teacher. (Edutopia, 2013)

Games to Teach Financial Literacy: Explore some friendly, engaging options to promote financial literacy among secondary students. (Edutopia, 2013)

Downloads and Examples From Schools That Work

Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, find downloads used by practitioners at featured schools, and dive into real-world examples of teaching and learning financial literacy.

Piggy-Bank Friday: Life Skills Through Financial Literacy: Through the Piggy-Bank Friday program, K-5 students at Walter Bracken STEAM Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, have saved over $30,000 in one year. Watch the video, read about their practice, and take a look at this featured download:

Financial Literacy Makes School Relevant: The Ariel Community Academy, a public K-8 school on the South Side of Chicago, has been achieving remarkable success thanks to a number of effective strategies, particularly a financial-literacy program. Watch a video, and learn about the components of their K-8 curriculum to see how they do it. Then explore some of this school's resources and downloads; a few highlights from their Goods and Services Unit, organized according to Bloom's Taxonomy, are linked below.

Remembering: Review a lesson suggested for fourth grade that asks students to define and give examples of goods as objects that satisfy people's wants and services.

Understanding: Review a lesson suggested for fifth grade that asks students to explain that economic wants are desires that can be satisfied by consuming a good or service or leisure activity and why not all wants can be satisfied.

Applying: Review a lesson suggested for sixth grade that asks students to diagram the relationship among a final good or service, the way it's produced, and who consumes and produces it.

Analyzing: Review a lesson suggested for seventh grade that asks students to compare different ways resources are used to buy and consume goods and services.

Creating: Review a lesson suggested for eighth grade that asks students to explain scarcity and how not all wants for goods and services can be satisfied.

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Resources and Downloads for Financial Literacy

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Explore resources and downloads for educators seeking to help students learn financial concepts, practice money management, and build strong financial decision-making and economic-reasoning skills. Creativity, Candy, and Commerce: Discover how middle school students brought curiosity and passion to learning through the design, manufacture, and marketing of their own signature chocolate bars.

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Explore resources and downloads for educators seeking to help students learn financial concepts, practice money management, and build strong financial decision-making and economic-reasoning skills.

Discover Lessons, Simulations, Videos, and Apps

Explore Activities for Grades K-8

Creativity, Candy, and Commerce: Discover how middle school students brought curiosity and passion to learning through the design, manufacture, and marketing of their own signature chocolate bars. (Edutopia, 2015)

Make the Money "Real": Read about a counting-change simulation that gives students experience handling money in the lead-up to handling real transactions. (Edutopia, 2015)

Teaching Toward an Affordable Future: Learn about a program that helps elementary school students learn about personal finance while saving money every week. (Edutopia, 2015)

Elementary Financial Literacy: Lesson Ideas and Resources: Discover how financial literacy can be integrated into elementary English and mathematics, and find a few resources to get started. "Financial Literacy for Elementary Students" is another great list of resources. (Edutopia, 2014)

Teaching Financial Literacy to Middle Schoolers: Explore strategies for integrating financial literacy into middle school curricula and age-appropriate resource suggestions. "Financial Literacy for Middle School Students" is another good source of guidance, information, and resources. (Edutopia, 2014)

Explore Activities for Grades 9-12

Addressing Student, Family, and Community Needs: Find out how one school uses a personal finance class to impart lessons about fiscal responsibility and financial literacy to teens and connect this knowledge to their lives. (Edutopia, 2015)

When Financial Education Hits Close to Home: Read about the Home Ownership project, a real-world project that helped students at Maplewood High School in Nashville, Tennessee, learn about homeownership and the power of personal finance. (Edutopia, 2015)

5-Minute Film Festival: We the Economy: Watch and share 20 short films that explain concepts like debt, money, and supply and demand. (Edutopia, 2015)

Financial Literacy in High School: Necessary and Relevant: Learn how to make financial literacy relevant to students' lives, and find resources for teaching financial literacy skills to high school students. For more guidance, information, and resources, also see "Financial Literacy for High School Students." (Edutopia, 2014)

3 Ways to Enagage High Schoolers in Personal Finance: Discover a few technology-based ways to engage high schoolers in discussions about personal finance. (U.S. News and World Report, 2014)

A Mobile App Lesson on Financial Capability: Check out a lesson on financial capability that makes use of mobile apps, courtesy of Brian Page, a high school personal finance and AP economics teacher. (Edutopia, 2013)

Games to Teach Financial Literacy: Explore some friendly, engaging options to promote financial literacy among secondary students. (Edutopia, 2013)

Downloads and Examples From Schools That Work

Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, find downloads used by practitioners at featured schools, and dive into real-world examples of teaching and learning financial literacy.

Piggy-Bank Friday: Life Skills Through Financial Literacy: Through the Piggy-Bank Friday program, K-5 students at Walter Bracken STEAM Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, have saved over $30,000 in one year. Watch the video, read about their practice, and take a look at this featured download:

Financial Literacy Makes School Relevant: The Ariel Community Academy, a public K-8 school on the South Side of Chicago, has been achieving remarkable success thanks to a number of effective strategies, particularly a financial-literacy program. Watch a video, and learn about the components of their K-8 curriculum to see how they do it. Then explore some of this school's resources and downloads; a few highlights from their Goods and Services Unit, organized according to Bloom's Taxonomy, are linked below.

Remembering: Review a lesson suggested for fourth grade that asks students to define and give examples of goods as objects that satisfy people's wants and services.

Understanding: Review a lesson suggested for fifth grade that asks students to explain that economic wants are desires that can be satisfied by consuming a good or service or leisure activity and why not all wants can be satisfied.

Applying: Review a lesson suggested for sixth grade that asks students to diagram the relationship among a final good or service, the way it's produced, and who consumes and produces it.

Analyzing: Review a lesson suggested for seventh grade that asks students to compare different ways resources are used to buy and consume goods and services.

Creating: Review a lesson suggested for eighth grade that asks students to explain scarcity and how not all wants for goods and services can be satisfied.

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Resources and Downloads for Financial Literacy

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Explore resources and downloads for educators seeking to help students learn financial concepts, practice money management, and build strong financial decision-making and economic-reasoning skills. Creativity, Candy, and Commerce: Discover how middle school students brought curiosity and passion to learning through the design, manufacture, and marketing of their own signature chocolate bars.

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Whether you are looking for resources on integrating science, technology, engineering, and math or on infusing the arts to transform STEM into STEAM, these curated compilations will help you plan different approaches to integrated studies.

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Whether you are looking for resources on integrating science, technology, engineering, and math or on infusing the arts to transform STEM into STEAM, these curated compilations will help you plan different approaches to integrated studies.

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Explore ways to use STEM lessons and approaches to help students practice cross-disciplinary thinking and build skills in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Photo credit: Kevin Jarrett via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

STEM Is Jambalaya: Internalize this food metaphor to shift into a STEM mindset. (Edutopia, 2014)

How to Get Your School Ready for STEM This Year: Discover a few straightforward tips for preparing your school to launch STEM learning that don't require access to large amounts of funding. (KQED's MindShift, 2013)

10 Innovative Ways to Bring STEM to Schools: Explore ideas for bringing STEM learning into schools, including teacher research and development teams, inviting guest scientists, organizing clubs, and convening parent focus groups. (KQED's MindShift 2014)

Strategies for Engaging Students in STEM Learning

How to Design Right-Sized Challenges: Consider takeaways from an engineering design competition for how to conceptualize design challenges as relevant to real life, challenging, and achievable for diverse learners. (Edutopia, 2014)

Ownership and Agency Will Propel STEM Learning: Review evidence that the best way forward in STEM learning is by letting students lead. (Edutopia, 2014)

STEM and Writing: See how inviting guest speakers from STEM fields to the classroom can inspire student imaginations. (Edutopia, 2014)

Using Football Science to Tackle STEM Education: Learn how to use topics that interest students to get across potentially challenging or intimidating STEM concepts. (Edutopia, 2013)

Learning the Physics of Skateboarding Engages Kids in Science: Watch a video about an educator known as "Dr. Skateboard," and see how he teaches students about speed, velocity, and momentum at the local skate park. (Edutopia, 2014)

STEMbite: An Experiment in Teaching With Google Glass: Watch first-person video lessons -- including a broadcast from one teacher's kitchen exploring crazy science found in the refrigerator -- and see how video lessons can motivate and inspire students in STEM. (Edutopia, 2013)

Engaging Students in the STEM Classroom Through Making: Find out how to use the maker movement to engage STEM students in new ways. (Edutopia, 2012)

STEM Projects, Lessons, and Models

Pulling Underrepresented Youth Into STEM

Quick, Draw a Scientist: Learn how to address scientist stereotypes in the minds of students. (Edutopia, 2015)

Why Students Leave STEM: Discover why some students choose to leave STEM, and learn how strategies like mentors and role models can help. (Edutopia, 2014)

Girls Against the World, Scientifically Speaking: Dig into questions and explore suggestions for how STEM education can be made more relevant for girls. (Edutopia, 2015)

Kinesthetic Learning: Moving Toward a New Model for Education: Find out how one afterschool program is pairing kinesthetic learning and mathematics to break through barriers of self-image and perceived limitations. (Edutopia, 2014)

5 Ways to Get Girls Into STEM: Explore strategies to help capture young girls' interest in STEM subjects and career paths. (Edutopia, 2013)

Five-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos to Encourage Girls in STEM: Watch a video playlist to ignite your imagination about what girls can do in science, technology, engineering, and math. Be sure to take a look at the tip sheets and articles at the bottom of the page. (Edutopia, 2014)

STEM Beyond School Walls

Downloads and Examples From Schools That Work

Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, find downloads used by practitioners at a featured school, and dive into real-world examples of STEM learning.

Bridges Project Design Document: Download a PDF document that describes how students learn about the math and engineering concepts necessary to construct bridges and explore the symbolic meaning of bridges in literature, history, and social studies.

Communications Project Design Document: Download a PDF document that describes how students address learning goals across multiple subjects through design and construction of a sound system and the writing of original music.

Rockets and Robots Project Design Document: Download a PDF document that describes how students build robots and construct rockets to complete a variety of space-inspired missions and reach reach learning goals in various content areas.

Blank Project Design Document: Download a blank PDF template used to design and plan capstone projects at Mc2STEM.

Sample Fab Lab Projects: Download a PDF document with photos of several projects that were done in the Mc2STEM Fab Lab.

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Explore ways to use STEM lessons and approaches to help students practice cross-disciplinary thinking and build skills in science, technology, engineering, and math.

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How to Infuse the Arts Into Core Curriculum (and Why It Matters)

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Successful arts integration includes approaching your Curriculum like an artist, a rich process for a rich product, cultivating artist-researchers, and combining content with art.

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Computational Thinking across the Curriculum

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Computational Thinking across the Curriculum

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Algorithmic Thinking

Students demonstrate algorithmic thinking whenever they create or use a well-defined series of steps to achieve a desired outcome. In our sixth-grade math class, for example, students identify and plot a set of ordered pairs on a coordinate plane to re-create a piece of art they've made. Students practice the algorithm for Punnett squares by refashioning themselves as cartoon babies, meticulously crossing their genotypes to create endless generations of children. In orchestra, students learn about the history of algorithmic music composition, from Mozart's dice music to Emily Howell, a computer program created by David Cope, to modern, all-robot bands.

While humans can get a bit more creative in following an algorithm than a computer can, it's important for students to be able to both communicate and interpret clear instructions for a predictable, reliable output.

Decomposition

Decomposition means breaking down a complicated problem into its components and working on one component at a time. In our seventh-grade humanities class, students dissect the American criminal justice system, identifying problems and proposing solutions that better represent a fair and balanced system. Toward the end of a basketball unit in fitness class, our sixth graders decompose a LeBron James dunk, using the NBA's public motion tracking data to plot and analyze motion graphs to better understand the offensive strategy.

With the power of decomposition, problems that seem overwhelming at first become much more approachable for students.

Abstraction

Abstraction refers to stripping away unnecessary details to develop a generic solution, or representing a complicated system with a simple model or visualization. In humanities class, students simulate their own ancient civilization by choosing natural resources and technologies and seeing how their populations fare over centuries, while ignoring complexities like government structures and religion. While learning about human anatomy, seventh graders team up to create 3D amusement parks based on a human body, representing blood cells with bumper cars and neural networks with ziplines-without stressing over details like molecular composition or energy production.

Learning what information is important and what can be left out is a critical skill for students to develop as problems grow in complexity.

Pattern Recognition

Students leverage pattern recognition by analyzing trends in data and using that information to work out solutions. Students in science class save the world by analyzing real-time earthquake data and identifying where seismic activity is clustered, forming their own hypotheses about how tectonic plates may be to blame. In math class, students optimize fantasy football teams by using proportional reasoning skills to draft players with the best performance data.

Applying a real-world context to your lessons helps students realize that the skills they're learning are not just relevant but vital beyond the classroom. Trevor Muir offers fantastic ideas and evidence on this approach in his TEDx talk on real-world learning.

Essential Attitudes

Solving problems as a computational thinker also requires some specific attitudes toward problem solving in general. We strive to empower our students with the confidence needed to tackle ambiguous problems, the tenacity to persist through challenges requiring iteration and experimentation, strong communication skills to facilitate collaboration and presentation, and a general curiosity across all disciplines that leads them to ask and answer big, scary questions. Chris O'Brien discusses developing these muscles in a school makerspace, and project-based learning in any classroom is a phenomenal way to foster this mindset in your students.

You may be thinking to yourself, "My students already do a lot of these things!" In fact, computational thinking is happening in many classrooms already, likely by many other names. Computational thinking is intricately linked with critical thinking, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning, and project-based learning. By employing the language of computational thinking across multiple disciplines, students can make powerful connections between their classes and beyond. Better yet, when faced with challenges that are difficult to categorize, students will have a rich toolkit to draw from that crosses traditional subject borders.

Bringing computational thinking into your classroom is simple, and can only help your students achieve the learning objectives you've already identified. Think about these skills and attitudes when planning lessons, and use this language throughout the year. Introduce some ambiguity in your projects, link lessons to real-world examples and evidence, and dream big-over time, your students may surprise you with the connections they make and their confidence in diving into new challenges.

Looking for a quick way to get started? Most of the above lessons and activities are available as free lesson plans on our curriculum website. And Google offers a great online course for teachers looking to bring computational thinking into their classrooms.

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Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum

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Students demonstrate algorithmic thinking whenever they create or use a well-defined series of steps to achieve a desired outcome. In our sixth-grade math class, for example, students identify and plot a set of ordered pairs on a coordinate plane to re-create a piece of art they've made.

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A fun way to think about teaching Material Science (Ceramics and Jewelry)

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A fun way to think about teaching Material Science (Ceramics and Jewelry)

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

But if we want to prepare children to be future scientists, we need to inform them about the past. By doing so, we demystify scientific advancements by revealing their messy historical reality; we show students how science is actually conducted; and we have the opportunity to spotlight scientists who have been written out of history-and thus invite more students into the world of science.

The Power of Science Stories

One of the best ways to share science from a historical point of view is to tell great science stories. Stories are sticky: The research shows that humans are hardwired for them, and that scaffolding information-by bundling scientific discoveries with a compelling narrative, for example-helps the brain incorporate new concepts. In this way, stories act like conveyor belts, making lessons more exciting and carrying crucial information along with them.

But good stories can serve another purpose, too. By seeing how an invention of the past impacts life in the present, students learn to think holistically. For example, if they are shown how clocks accelerated life, or how computers changed how humans think, then they can see how technology shapes culture or even changes our sense of time. In this way, STEM expands beyond its typical limits and becomes interconnected in students' minds-not just to other technologies, but to all disciplines and fields of inquiry.

Uncovering the Unintended Consequences of Inventions

For over a decade, I looked for a book to provide both the historical and societal context of inventions-to tell the stories of science-but didn't have much luck. I felt so strongly about this missing approach to nurture critical thinkers that I decided to write The Alchemy of Us, which is a book about inventions and how they changed life and society. In it, the lives of a diverse cast of little-known inventors-from pastor Hannibal Goodwin to housewife Bessie Littleton-are unfolded, and the many ways in which those everyday inventions changed life are highlighted.

Sometimes the outcomes of these inventions were intended, and in many more cases they were not. For example, students will see that the telegraph used electricity to shuttle messages over long distances quickly. But they will also come to realize that the telegraph had a shortcoming: It could not handle many messages at a time. Customers at the telegraph office were encouraged to keep their messages brief. Soon, newspapers used telegraphs in their newsrooms, and editors told reporters to write succinctly. The use of short declarative sentences was a newspaper style that was embraced by one reporter who went on to write many famous books-his name was Ernest Hemingway.

Here, then, is a case of how a technology, the telegraph, altered language and led to one of the world's most celebrated literary styles-and this lesson of cascading and unpredictable outcomes can be extended to how Twitter and text messages are altering language now. When history is included in STEM, students learn science, but they also learn about the much broader impact of science.

Shaping the Future by Using the Past: An Exercise

One way that we can build critical thinking skills is to put technology under the microscope. Have students think about inventions, like their cell phones or Instagram or the internet, and consider how they make an impact on life more broadly. Students can create lists of all the changes-ask them to think about not only changes to the material world, but changes to less tangible ideas and concepts, like human psychology and belief systems-and break students into small groups to discuss and share out their findings. Alternatively, you can pose a counterfactual: Ask students to create a timeline of the invention's history, along with a second timeline as if that invention never happened. What happens if the cell phone was never invented?

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers, but the tasks require your students to observe the world with more wonder-and more skepticism-and condition their minds to think about causes and effects.

To take a deeper look: Let's say you asked your students to examine the effect of the internet on modern life. The internet has certainly changed life significantly. For starters, we can listen to music, watch videos, access information, and contact each other easily. Have your students discuss life before and after the internet in groups and then create a drawing or write a short essay. They could answer questions like these: How did people get their news? How did they hear from each other? How did people listen to music? Where was information about different topics stored before the internet? The next step might be to look at the pros and cons of the internet, specifically social media. Does being more connected help or hurt us? Does the internet bring us together or divide us? Does the internet make it easier or harder to find the truth?

Once students are warmed up to thinking about technology in this way, you might have them try on the role of futurists. Ask them to consider thought-provoking questions like: If social media is based on "likes" and "follows," what kind of society will we be in the future? Will we listen to popular celebrities with millions of followers, or will we listen to experts with fewer followers? Will it be easier to spread false information? Students can then draw a picture, write an essay, or create a video reflecting on the societal impact of the internet and what life could be like in the future with or without their proposed solutions.

Engaging Future Citizens

While STEM skills are themselves increasingly important in our technologically rich world, STEM is also a pathway to engage students as critical thinkers, and even as future citizens. By placing science in the broader context of history and culture, we can remind students of how scientific inventions play a role in our evolving cultural and even moral belief systems. And by giving students the space to critique inventions, we give them the skills to shape the future.

To get kids asking hard questions, however, the key first step is to give them good science stories. Once students are more engaged with how STEM is part of a larger fabric, they will have the skills to see the world more clearly and the lens they need to start posing tough questions. This approach aligns with the wisdom of William Shakespeare, who said centuries ago, "What's past is prologue." He was absolutely right, because if we're attentive observers, the old stories provide us with a good map to what lies ahead.
Ainissa Ramirez is a materials scientist and the author of "The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (MIT Press).

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Building Critical Thinkers by Combining STEM With History

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

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Interactive Simulations for Math and Science

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Interactive Simulations for Math and Science

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By converting our sims to HTML5, we make them seamlessly available across platforms and devices. Whether you have laptops, iPads, chromebooks, or BYOD, your favorite PhET sims are always right at your fingertips.Become part of our mission today, and transform the learning experiences of students everywhere!

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Share educational resources and support each other as a community of educators.

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Amidst the sea of chaos brought on by COVID-19, while most schools are having to hoist new sails in uncharted waters, a handful of others have been able to more or less stay the course. Before the pandemic began, approximately 375,000 of America's 56 million K-12 students already attended school online full-time. The schools serving these students have years of experience with distance learning-decades in some cases. Of course, these schools too are facing added challenges of serving families strained by unemployment, illness, or added stress and anxiety, and in many cases, educators are having to juggle teaching with tending to their own children at home. But when it comes to the core elements of instruction, "social distancing" and "shelter in place" have meant more or less business as usual for online schools. So what can brick-and-mortar schools learn from them?
Virtual schooling in context
Historically, online schools haven't been seen as the bastions of quality in the public education landscape. According to a 2015 study by Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, virtual charter schools-a major subset of the state, district, and charter online school landscape-perform worse than comparison schools in 67% of cases.

In fairness, however, online schools do not exist because they outperform conventional schools. Rather, demand for online schools comes mainly from students whose needs go beyond what conventional schools can offer: students who are homebound for medical reasons; students who drop out of conventional schools due to personal challenges; students who flee conventional schools to escape bullying; or aspiring artists and athletes who need a way to keep up their schooling while pursuing their passions. These students' circumstances make them "nonusers" of brick-and-mortar schools. In response, online schools have developed unique strengths when it comes to facilitating distance instruction, customizing students' learning and integrating with students' home lives.
Learning from online schools
Now, as brick-and-mortar schools across the country face up to a global pandemic, they find themselves in a situation where all their students are suddenly the types of "nonusers" that online schools aim to serve. Faced with this reality, some worry that online schools will swoop in to nab enrollments and funding. Yet it's unlikely that this will happen to the extent some fear. State funding mechanisms, semester-based schedules, and capacity limits, by and large, constrain online schools from taking on large numbers of new students short term.

Unfortunately, focusing on turf wars over enrollment obscures the opportunity for brick-and-mortar schools to learn best practices from their online cousins. Online schools have spent years honing their expertise at working with the limitations of purely virtual interaction. Conventional schools would be wise not to reinvent the remote learning wheel.

Where can conventional schools go to learn from their online counterparts?

The Wisconsin Digital Learning Collaborative (WDLC) homepage features a Remote Instruction Checklist and has teacher, parent, and student online learning guides.

Montana's state virtual school has a great one-page guide on the pros and cons of various distance learning approaches.

Connections Academy and K12 Inc., two companies that run virtual schools across the country, have web pages for helping brick and mortar schools set up distance learning during the pandemic.

The Idaho Digital Learning Alliance and K12 Inc. offer free webinars on practical topics related to online teaching, such as student motivation, classroom management, and supporting all learners through virtual learning.

The Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance, an association of state virtual schools, has a page on its website that points to resources from its members for helping with distance learning during COVID-19 school closures.

Additionally, school districts might consider working with organizations such as ASU Prep Digital, VHS Learning, Fuel Education, and Edgenuity that specialize in helping districts set up online programs.
Building in-house expertise in online learning
Looking to the long term, school districts should consider building their own online learning programs as a way to fortify their readiness for school closures.

In normal times, such programs expand a district's capacity to serve its students: They provide "a la carte" electives that the district might not otherwise offer. They give students additional access to learning experiences that might not fit in their on-campus schedules. They provide options that attract some homeschool families. Most importantly, they engage students whose life circumstances otherwise preclude them from brick-and-mortar school-such as those described above.

In times of crisis-be those due to pandemics, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, or other unforeseeable emergencies-a district's online learning program can make the transition to full-time distance learning much easier. Districts with online learning programs have the infrastructure for distance learning ready to go. Furthermore, if a district encourages most teachers to teach online at least part of the time during normal times, those teachers have the skills to quickly move all learning online when needed. To help districts launch their own online schools, the Digital Learning Collaborative offers valuable guides on starting, growing, and improving digital learning programs.

Right now, there is a glut of websites and lists aimed to help schools shift to remote learning. But in many cases, these resources reveal the blind leading the blind: people without expertise in online learning quickly cobbling together off-the-cuff and unproven ideas. In times like these, districts should seek to learn from those with the most experience navigating distance learning.

Thomas Arnett is a senior research fellow in education for the Clayton Christensen Institute. His work focuses on studying innovations that amplify educator capacity, documenting barriers to K-12 innovation, and identifying disruptive innovations in education. Thomas previously served as a trustee and board president for the Morgan Hill Unified School District in Morgan Hill, California, worked as an Education Pioneers fellow with the Achievement First Public Charter Schools, and taught middle school math as a Teach For America teacher in Kansas City Public Schools. Thomas received a BS in Economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Distance learning: Let's not reinvent the wheel - Christensen Institute

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Amidst the sea of chaos brought on by COVID-19, while most schools are having to hoist new sails in uncharted waters, a handful of others have been able to more or less stay the course. Before the pandemic began, approximately 375,000 of America's 56 million K-12 students already attended school online full-time.

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Pushing Past Conventional Approaches

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of educational technologies. But experience and know-how about using those technologies to their greatest advantage has not been so easy to transplant. Survey results revealed that 42 percent of teachers started the school year with a version of remote learning that resembled a conventional school day's worth of synchronous instruction (i.e., teaching live from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. over Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams). Replicating a regular school day online, however, is not the best approach to online learning.

To put things in perspective, there is often a lag between when new technologies get adopted and when people figure out the best ways to put those technologies to use. For example, after factories were hooked up to electrical power in the early 1900s, it took 30 years for factory managers to figure out how to use electricity to boost productivity. Similarly, many of the first movies were basically stage productions captured on film, and early automobiles resembled horseless buggies. It often takes multiple iterations of experimentation for the pioneers in a field to fully realize advantages new technologies have to offer.

When the 2020-21 school year started, there were so many challenges for educators that the practical path forward was to stick to tried-and-true methods as much as possible. However, it's now a good time for educators to begin discovering new ways to leverage what online learning does and doesn't have to offer. For example, instead of covering material primarily through live video calls, consider creating online lessons that students can access on-demand, and focus the bulk of online class time on solving problems or discussing topics in breakout groups.

Discovering Student-Centered Resources and Practices

Many teachers are already exploring innovative approaches to online instruction. A large majority of surveyed teachers (79 percent) reported that they've discovered new resources or practices that they plan to continue using after the pandemic. When a follow-up question in the survey asked respondents to describe the resources and practices they plan to keep using, many noted tools for creating their own online lesson materials-like Pear Deck, Nearpod, and Edpuzzle-and for managing online content and assignments using tools such as Google Classroom.

Adopting these resources doesn't automatically transform instructional practices. But after making the leap to figure out these new resources, the path to more student-centered practices becomes much more incremental and easy. Here's how that pathway can unfold: At first, teachers might use online instructional tools just to improve how they deliver lessons over live video-for example, adding visuals to their lessons, administering quizzes online, and distributing assignment materials. But once teachers have their lessons and materials in a digital format, it isn't hard to record and post those resources so that students who are absent or who need extra review can access them.

With materials available on-demand, teachers are one small step away from flipping instruction completely: reserving face-to-face time for discussions, practice problems, or collaboration on projects while directing students to learn foundational content by watching lessons on their own. When lessons and activities are posted online, individually paced and mastery-based learning becomes much more manageable.

Getting Professional Development in Manageable Chunks

Survey responses also revealed that teachers who received effective professional development (PD) and were familiar with online tools were more confident than their colleagues. The survey asked teachers "How well are you currently able to serve your students?" with response options ranging from 0 (very poorly) to 100 (extremely well). The average response was 62. Yet for the subsets of teachers who felt confident with online tools and who felt they had received effective PD, the average response was nearly 10 points higher (70 and 71 respectively).

A number of online PD resources make it easier to learn student-centered practices for online remote learning. Organizations such as Modern Classrooms Project provide some great online PD on mastery-based, student-paced instruction.

Competency-based micro-credentials also make it easy to take incremental steps toward student-centered practices. Digital Promise hosts micro-credentials from organizations such as Modern Classrooms Project, Institute for Personalized Learning, Friday Institute at NC State, and more that can help educators learn the ins and outs of online student-centered learning. Likewise, BloomBoard offers micro-credentials designed by Ready to Blend specifically for student-centered teaching. ISTE has curated a list of free tools and resources at Learning Keeps Going, including an educator help desk where educators can ask experts about best practices for online learning.

These are challenging times, for sure. But they can also be times of opportunity for educators who focus on making the most of their circumstances. Given the fact that the global pandemic has pushed much of learning online, teachers owe it to their students to learn how to make the most of online learning.

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3 Ideas to Help Teachers Thrive This Year

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The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of educational technologies. But experience and know-how about using those technologies to their greatest advantage has not been so easy to transplant. Survey results revealed that 42 percent of teachers started the school year with a version of remote learning that resembled a conventional school day's worth of synchronous instruction (i.e., teaching live from 8 a.m.

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Your virtual classroom can foster a sense of community by including items that represent both your and your students' backgrounds.

Courtesy of Nadia Echevarria

Nadia Echevarria's virtual classroom includes images of objects that are meaningful to her and her students.

You finally finished your Bitmoji classroom, taking part in what might be one of the biggest K-12 teaching trends in 2020. You color-coordinated your digital bulletin board, office chair, and pencil cup, and your ABC garland is perfectly hung. The process may or may not have taken five hours longer than you expected, but your final product might help students navigate your online class a little better, it may actually look like your brick-and-mortar classroom (impressive!), or it might simply have given you joy to create.

I am a professor of educational technology who has discussed Bitmoji at length with my own students who are current or future K-12 teachers. I've come to believe that in spite of the critiques of Bitmoji classrooms, there is value in them. Yes, they risk being trite, visually overwhelming, or a waste of time, and the Bitmoji program profits from users' personal data.

These are concerns that deserve serious consideration. At the same time, well-done virtual classrooms can be an effective way to build community, engage students online, and enact culturally responsive pedagogies. But doing it right requires some serious thought. Your virtual classroom may be cute, but does it convey meaningful, functional, inclusive, and culturally responsive pedagogy?

Before diving in, head to Edutopia's recent Bitmoji article for basics on how to create a virtual classroom. Then return here for guidance on thinking critically about what your classroom should include to be good for all students, particularly your most vulnerable ones.

5 Questions to Ask When Creating a Virtual Classroom

1. What is the learning purpose of my virtual classroom? A clear objective or question is at the center of effective learning, whether online or in person. What do you want your virtual classroom to support your students in doing or knowing? Virtual classrooms can be used to set expectations and norms, support relationship building, and offer students clickable virtual libraries. (Be careful with copyrighted material. Some publishers, such as Scholastic's Learn At Home Library, have begun to offer free, open-access books during the pandemic.) For example, my student Lindsay Hoel created different virtual classroom pages, like the one below, for targeted purposes.
Courtesy of Lindsay Hoel
2. What meaningful objects can I include? Next, seek meaningful objects to include in your classroom. Bitmoji classrooms can easily get littered with stuff, making it difficult for students to focus on what matters. How can you cut the clutter and include meaningful imagery? When deciding what objects to include, ask yourself: Do objects in my classroom represent my values, background, and culture as an educator and as a person?

Ask yourself if you need that clock in the corner or if it's just distracting. And that Starbucks mug in your avatar's hand-what is it for? I love coffee with the best of 'em, but what does a branded coffee cup really say about me? Instead, why not showcase your family, friends, pets; activities that matter to you; your favorite places; or a favorite book, movie, album, or piece of art that is important to you? You could share a favorite quote that expresses your teaching philosophy. Think about your students' identities and cultures so that you can share things about yourself that resonate with their lived experiences. Nadia Echevarria's classroom, seen at the top of the page, illustrates a virtual classroom with meaningful objects that represent her background as a person and educator.

3. How can I make my virtual classroom accessible for cognitively and linguistically diverse learners? Begin by cutting the clutter. If you have too much content, why not make a second virtual classroom for related but distinct purposes? Next, check your fonts-are they clearly legible for all of your students? Then ask yourself if your language is clear, simple, and accessible for your bilingual and multilingual emergent students. Remember, screen readers may not function with your virtual classroom-keep this limitation in mind if you have students who rely on this technology. For more specific considerations, see the Universal Design for Learning guidelines, which may provide helpful guidance.

4. How can I make my virtual classroom inviting and nurturing for racially and culturally diverse learners? Your classroom, whether in person or online, must be a space that welcomes and celebrates your particular students, especially those who come from historically marginalized communities. Do you include objects, imagery, and content that resonate with and demonstrate respect for your African American, Latinx, and Indigenous students? Do you find ways to celebrate bilingualism and culture that matter to your students' communities? There are so many ways to honor your kiddos with two simple places to start: your classroom walls and your bookshelf.

What's on your "walls"? Think about including some of Teaching Tolerance's One World classroom poster series. These free digital posters include quotes by racially and culturally diverse changemakers and would make a culturally responsive addition to any virtual classroom. Next, what's on your "shelf"? Are the people and stories represented on your virtual bookshelf diverse in terms of race, language, ability, sexuality, and gender? Jillian Heise's Classroom Book a Day suggests books with diverse characters and authors to showcase your virtual classroom. Michelle John's Bitmoji classroom, below, features a bookshelf and walls that are culturally responsive.
Courtesy of Michelle John
5. How will I express creativity without an overwhelming time investment? Finally, remember that five hours making a Bitmoji classroom are five hours you could have used to plan a meaningful, hands-on social studies or science lesson. However, if the time you invest brings you joy and can support student learning, particularly for your most vulnerable students, it may be time well spent.

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How to Design a Culturally Responsive Bitmoji Classroom

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Your virtual classroom can foster a sense of community by including items that represent both your and your students' backgrounds. Courtesy of Nadia Echevarria Nadia Echevarria's virtual classroom includes images of objects that are meaningful to her and her students.

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8 Lessons About Grading, Assessment, & Differentiation for the Current Crisis

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8 Lessons About Grading, Assessment, & Differentiation for the Current Crisis

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Giving students the option to turn their cameras off may make them more comfortable and open up new possibilities for teaching.

As remote learning became the norm, some of my students began to not-so-subtly indicate that something was wrong. During a guest lecture on Zoom, several typically engaged students had their cameras turned off. One student stopped attending synchronous class meetings, and another stopped submitting assignments.

In conversation, it became apparent that these students wanted to remain engaged with learning-but didn't want cameras on. I realized that I needed to reassess how I determined students' engagement: by looking at their faces.

Here are some ways I've found to maintain community during virtual learning-while allowing students to make a choice about whether or not to turn on their cameras.

How to Make Video Optional

Running video-optional Socratic seminars: For small group discussions, I allowed students to meet on their own time-but asked that they submit a video recording to check for understanding. One group submitted a video even though students' cameras were off; nothing was lost in my ability to assess their ability to hold a discussion.

Initially, I had abandoned replicating a Socratic seminar virtually. Following the lead of this group, however, I was inspired to embrace an experiment. I conducted a virtual Socratic seminar in which the outer circle turned off their cameras and only the inner-circle students spoke with video and cameras on.

Students in the outer circle, who typically would be evaluating the participation of their peers in the inner circle, used the chat feature to echo powerful comments they heard and ask questions of the inner-circle group. In our brick-and-mortar classroom, they would have done this by writing notes on the whiteboard or passing notes to their partners in the inner circle. Having their video off did not inhibit student participation after all. In fact, embracing this approach actually opened up a discussion technique that I thought would not work in the remote-learning world.

Providing choice: For this coming year, I am proactively planning opportunities for video-off and video-optional moments. To build student agency, I offer students a choice about how they want to demonstrate their learning. For asynchronous reading assignments, for instance, I plan to offer the options of submitting a typed reading journal, writing an oral response on Flipgrid (with the settings changed so that only the teacher views the videos), or posting a photo of a creative response completed with pen and paper.

When using Flipgrid, I will give students the option of blocking the camera or turning the screen away so that just their voice is audible. For synchronous video meetings, my students will be able to choose whether to participate with chat, video, or just audio. As I found helpful last spring, I will continue to find ways to build in breaks with the camera off, asking students to work independently off-camera and then return to small group or whole-class work with active participation.

Fostering deep engagement in multiple formats: I plan to incorporate various tools to build rapport, engage 100 percent of students 100 percent of the time, and assess their progress-even while students' cameras are off. Polling tools, whether separate or within Zoom, can serve as effective formative assessments. They can be used to ask students how they're feeling, use a silly icebreaker question, or give a multiple choice quiz.

Teachers might have students draw or use a personal whiteboard in the classroom to check for understanding: Students can hold up a paper or whiteboard to the screen without needing to show their home or face.

Setting up video-optional small group work: As I examine lessons I've used in in-person teaching, I'm struck that protocols I have used for deep textual analysis and reflection might work even better in the virtual realm. In the past, I've taught activities that had a required reflection time; some students found this awkward and rushed to the next step. With the break from the constant gaze of the camera, I plan to experiment with this same lesson in breakout rooms this fall.

As an education leader has reiterated to me, a student who previously had video on and subsequently disappeared should always be greeted with, "I noticed your video has been off; how can I help you be present in this online community?" Just as we would check in on a student with a chat after class in the hall, these demonstrations of care may even open up student-generated modes of participation.

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Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off

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Giving students the option to turn their cameras off may make them more comfortable and open up new possibilities for teaching. As remote learning became the norm, some of my students began to not-so-subtly indicate that something was wrong. During a guest lecture on Zoom, several typically engaged students had their cameras turned off.

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A free online platform for science education from Harvard University

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CTE and Financial Overview New Teacher Induction 2020 -2.pptx

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Program Quality Action Plans aka: Self-Assessments

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connects industry to classrooms

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The Runestone Interactive tools create compelling interactive learning resources used by hundreds of Colleges, Universities, and High Schools around the world. Here is a list of the titles we know about. Contact us to add yours to the list.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Computer Graphics

Web Programming

Fundamentals of Web Programming

Written by Brad Miller, this book is designed for a seven week course I teach to majors and non majors. It introduces HTML, CSS, and a bit of Javascript. Fundamentals of Web Programming

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The Runestone Interactive tools create compelling interactive learning resources used by hundreds of Colleges, Universities, and High Schools around the world. Here is a list of the titles we know about. Contact us to add yours to the list.

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Whether you're a parent/guardian or a student learning independently, the options below are engaging, easy-to-try ways to begin your exploration of computer science.

Try an Hour of Code with these fun introductory tutorial

Try a one-hour tutorial featuring popular games and movies like Minecraft, Frozen, and Star Wars. Many tutorials are structured like games, designed to teach basic computer science concepts in fun, engaging ways.

Minecraft Hour of Code

Minecraft is back for the Hour of Code with a brand new activity! Journey through Minecraft with code.

Try activity

AI for Oceans

Help A.I. clean the oceans by training it to detect trash! Learn about training data and bias, and how AI can address world problems. View lesson plan.

Try activity

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Watch an engaging series of short videos to learn how computers, the internet, and AI work

Learn the basics of computer science with videos featuring famous technologists like Bill Gates and Satya Nadella, as well as a diverse cast of presenters from a number of industries and organizations.

How Computers Work

With an introduction by Bill Gates, this series of six short videos explains what makes a computer a computer and how computer circuits work.

Watch the video series

How the Internet Works

In this series of eight short videos, you'll learn how the internet was invented, what HTML is, and how search engines like Google work.

Watch the video series

How AI Works

Learn about how AI works and why it matters with this series of short videos. Featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and a diverse cast of experts.

Watch the video series

View more videos, including short inspirational videos featuring celebrities like Steph Curry and Shakira, here.
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Learn the fundamentals with our self-paced courses

Self-paced introductory courses

A great option for students getting started on their own. You'll learn the fundamentals of computer science with drag & drop blocks. Create your own drawings and games. Note: Express courses are currently available in English, Hindi, Italian, and Spanish. For other languages, we recommend our 20-hour Accelerated Course. To see what's available in your language, visit our course catalog.

Self-paced introductions to Game Lab and App Lab

Adapted from our CS Discoveries and CS Principles courses, these short, self-paced modules are a great way to learn concepts that span all programming languages and tools. Requires Code.org account to access.
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Create something!

First, get inspired! View our project gallery - play some of the games or try out some of the apps that students have created. You can "remix" the project to make it your own, or build something new in App Lab, Game Lab, or Web Lab.

App Lab

App Lab is a programming environment where you can make simple apps. Design an app, code with blocks or JavaScript to make it work, then share your app in seconds.

Build an app

Game Lab

Game Lab is a programming environment where you can make simple animations and games with objects and characters that interact with each other.

Create a game

Web Lab

Web Lab is a programming environment where you can make simple web pages using HTML and CSS. Design your web pages and share your site in seconds.

Make a web page

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'Unplugged' activities: Computer Science without the computer

Click image to view as PDF

No screen, no problem! We've put together a 'sampler' of quick, fun CS activities you can do without a device. Have a family Dance Party party while learning about events, or 'program' each other to draw pictures!

View unplugged activities

Or view these unplugged options from other organizations:

Hello Ruby - The world's most whimsical way to learn about computers, technology and programming. Activities on a range of CS topics, like the ability to decompose a problem, spot patterns, think algorithmically, debug problems and work together. (for ages 4-10)

CS Unplugged - A collection of free teaching material that teaches computer science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. (for ages 5-14)

No computer at home? Try CS on your phone with these apps from our partners

Box Island
A charming mobile coding game that takes learners on an exciting adventure, while teaching the fundamentals of coding, like algorithms, pattern recognition, sequences, loops and conditionals. (for all ages)

codeSpark
Award-winning learn-to-code platform for kids ages 5-9. Solve puzzles and create games with The Foos while learning to code. Note: codeSpark is offering a free 3-month trial. Parent's email address and credit card information are required at signup. (for pre-readers through Grade 5)

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Learn from the Code.org team and special guests!

CodeBytes

CodeBytes are easy-to-digest, 20 minute interactive lessons blending computer science with real-world topics. Train an AI to read sign language, design an app for good, explore the world of Minecraft, and more!

View episodes

Code Break

Keep computer science fun by taking a Code Break! You can create a cypher with Ashton Kutcher, learn about variables with Yara Shahidi, and even explore how the Internet works with the actual inventor of the Internet, Vint Cerf!

Get connected

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Whether you're a parent/guardian or a student learning independently, the options below are engaging, easy-to-try ways to begin your exploration of computer science. Try a one-hour tutorial featuring popular games and movies like Minecraft, Frozen, and Star Wars. Many tutorials are structured like games, designed to teach basic computer science concepts in fun, engaging ways.

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Computer Science Explorations 2

The Computer Science Explorations 2 course is an introductory course for late middle school students. Students learn the basics of programming with Karel the Dog and learn how to code within the context of art and game design. Students also explore how the internet works and how to make web pages with HTML and CSS.

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The Computer Science Explorations 2 course is an introductory course for late middle school students. Students learn the basics of programming with Karel the Dog and learn how to code within the context of art and game design. Students also explore how the internet works and how to make web pages with HTML and CSS.

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ICAP in the times of COVID-19 - Google DOC

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ICAP in the times of COVID-19 - Google DOC

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ICAP in the times of COVID-19 - Google DOC

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Thank you Mary Bradley!

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Donation or loan of PPE guidance, U.S. Department of Education

Fact Sheet for Repurposing Federal Equipment and Supplies to Combat COVID-19, U.S. Department of Education

Perkins V State Plans and COVID-19 - FAQs Round 2, U.S. Department of Education

Perkins V State Plans and COVID-19 - FA Qs, U.S. Department of Education

Resources for Schools and School Personnel, U.S. Department of Education

Fact Sheet for protecting students' civil rights during COVID-19, U.S. Department of Education
Other
Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act Fact Sheet, United States Senate

Map of Coronavirus and School Closures, Education Week

Map and database of state-by-state updates on actions taken by education systems in response to COVID-19, ExcelinEd

US COVID-19 50-State Tracker, Dentons

Coronavirus: What You Need To Know, National Governors Association (NGA)

A memo that looks at how states are regulating work-based learning programs during the crisis, NGA
Advance CTE Response
A webinar reviewing the CARES Act in detail and it's connection to education and the workforce, Advance CTE

COVID-19 supplemental letter to Congressional leadership, Advance CTE and ACTE, March 20, 2020

CTE priorities for future stimulus package: A Letter to Congress, Advance CTE and ACTE, April 8, 2020

Letter to U.S. Department of Education expressing concerns of student eligibility under Emergency Financial Aid Grants, Advance CTE and ACTE, April 23, 2020

L etter in strong support of the Emergency Educational Connections Act of 2020 (H.R. 6563), Advance CTE and 50+ National Organizations, April 22, 2020

Letter in response to the proposed HEROES Act, Advance CTE and ACTE, May 13, 2020

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Donation or loan of PPE guidance, U.S. Department of Education Fact Sheet for Repurposing Federal Equipment and Supplies to Combat COVID-19, U.S. Department of Education Perkins V State Plans and COVID-19 - FAQs Round 2, U.S. Department of Education Perkins V State Plans and COVID-19 - FA Qs, U.S.

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We hope that Dream Big will be an experience that audiences will take with them long after the projector stops-an experience that continues to spark curiosity, questions, awe and maybe even aspiration. Here are some ideas to help to spur even more learning in your classroom or at home.

Sign up for our Educator Mailing List to get updates on MacGillivray Freeman's upcoming films, projects and educational programs.

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Education - Dream Big: Engineering Our World

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We hope that Dream Big will be an experience that audiences will take with them long after the projector stops-an experience that continues to spark curiosity, questions, awe and maybe even aspiration. Here are some ideas to help to spur even more learning in your classroom or at home.

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Cleaning guidance | Colorado COVID-19 Updates

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Available languages: Español | Tiếng Việt | 中文 | Soomaali | العربية |

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Cleaning guidance | Colorado COVID-19 Updates

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Available languages: Español | Tiếng Việt | 中文 | Soomaali | العربية |

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By Linda S. Futch (Department Head, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida) The next offering of BlendKit 2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer begins on Februrary 23, 2015, with a 30-minute orientation session at 2:00 p.m. (US EDT; -4 UTC) and lasts five weeks. The open course will be offered at no cost. ... Continue reading BlendKit2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer >>

Starting February 22, Join Rohan and Baiyun as we kickoff BlendKit 2016 - Learn more and enroll here: https://www.canvas.net/courses/becoming-a-blended-learning-designer-2/. Continue reading It's that time of year again! Enroll into BlendKit 2016! >>

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Blended Learning Toolkit | Just another WordPress site

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By Linda S. Futch (Department Head, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida) The next offering of BlendKit 2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer begins on Februrary 23, 2015, with a 30-minute orientation session at 2:00 p.m. (US EDT; -4 UTC) and lasts five weeks.

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By Linda S. Futch (Department Head, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida) The next offering of BlendKit 2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer begins on Februrary 23, 2015, with a 30-minute orientation session at 2:00 p.m. (US EDT; -4 UTC) and lasts five weeks. The open course will be offered at no cost. ... Continue reading BlendKit2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer >>

Starting February 22, Join Rohan and Baiyun as we kickoff BlendKit 2016 - Learn more and enroll here: https://www.canvas.net/courses/becoming-a-blended-learning-designer-2/. Continue reading It's that time of year again! Enroll into BlendKit 2016! >>

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Blended Learning Toolkit | Just another WordPress site

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By Linda S. Futch (Department Head, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida) The next offering of BlendKit 2015: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer begins on Februrary 23, 2015, with a 30-minute orientation session at 2:00 p.m. (US EDT; -4 UTC) and lasts five weeks.

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ACTE and our CTE Learn partner, MaxKnowledge, are pleased to offer CTE educators and institutions 50% off the entire collection of 150+ online CTE Learn credit course and subscription key purchases from June 1-July 31. Use VIP Code CTE50 to make your purchase on CTE Learn or any of the state portals within the CTE Learn network. CTE Learn courses are self-paced; each course takes approximately 4 hours to complete. Courses cover a range of topics, including teaching CTE remotely.

In June, ACTE is also launching a series of webinars on High-quality CTE: Planning for a COVID-19-Impacted School Year and will be releasing a related guide.

As you finish the school year, check out the CTE Distance Learning weekly publication, created by the California Department of Education's Career and College Transition Division in partnership with ACTE, CTEOnline.org and the San Diego County Office of Education's Office of College and Career Readiness, which is highlighting sector-specific lesson plans, webinars and resources for the remainder of the school year.

For additional resources that ACTE compiled during spring 2020 to support CTE educators, please visit the tabs below:

Cross/Multidisciplinary CTE Resources

Cross-disciplinary Resources
These are resources for career development, employability skill development, project management, industry engagement and other topics that can be integrated into any CTE subject area.

CareerPrepped lifelong career success system with virtual work-based learning activities and multi-media learning experiences addressing 43 "soft skills," including a digital portfolio, targeted resume builder, interview prep videos and a job center (Max Knowledge): https://www.ctelearn.org/careerprepped

CareerPrepped is free for ACTE Members, including members of ACTE's Unified State Association Partners, through the generous support of MaxKnowledge, Inc.

eDynamic Learning free activities and resources for career discovery: https://edynamiclearning.com/category/activity and https://edynamiclearning.com/career-compass

How to Use Xello for Remote Learning: https://xello.world/en/blog/remote-learning-xello

Microburst EmployABILITY Soft Skills Program and distance learning resources:

EnvisionIT free college and career readiness curriculum addressing career readiness/transition planning, IT literacy, reading/writing and financial literacy: https://nisonger.osu.edu/research/envision-it/what-is-envisionit

Emerge with Rubin online training for business communication skills (Danny Rubin):

Talking Safety online workplace safety curriculum (NIOSH and NOCTI): https://www.nocti.org/niosh/Niosh_Flyer_2016-web.pdf

PMIEF Fundamentals of Project Management online assessment and resource library: https://www.nocti.org/pdf/pmief/PMIEF_FLYER.pdf and https://pmief.org/library/resources?utm_source=COVID%20Bar%20Resources%20Page

Nebraska Career Clusters virtual industry tours: https://www.nebraskacareerclusters.com

ConnectED Day at Work Videos: https://connectedstudios.org/life_videos

Careers in the Military (ASVAB CEP): https://www.careersinthemilitary.com/home

FabFems database of women in STEM professions who are inspiring role models for young women: https://www.fabfems.org

CTSO Virtual Conference Tips and Tricks (Jen Girvin, Colorado FBLA-PBL State Adviser, and Kent Seuferer, Iowa CTSO State Adviser): https://youtu.be/acPEbjJo8sQ

Multidisciplinary Resources
These are resources for discipline-specific curriculum and assessments across multiple CTE subject areas.

Today's Class online curriculum in Agriculture, Automotive/Diesel Technology, Barbering, Cosmetology, Health Science and Workplace Readiness: https://www.todaysclass.com
Today's Class is allowing access free of charge until the end of the school year May 1, 2020. Contact dboyes@todaysclass.com to set up an account.

NOCTI Digital Study Guides and Credentialing Assessments:

For schools and states who had already purchased digital study guides for this year, those expirations are extended until June 30, 2021.

For schools and states that would like to purchase digital study guides that had not purchased either in the past, contact nocti@nocti.org.

All expiration dates for NOCTI credentialing assessments that have not been utilized for 2020 will be extended to June 30, 2021, at no charge.

Goodheart-Wilcox Learning Companion digital curriculum and activities: https://www.g-wlearning.com

Realityworks free lesson plans, webinars about delivering Realityworks curriculum online: https://www.realityworks.com/our-partnership-with-educators

Nasco lesson plans and activities in STEM, FCS and Health Education: https://www.enasco.com/lessonplans?ic_source=prepare&ic_creative=GlobalNavLink&ic_id=LessonPlans-1119

Educate.Today free videos and tools in a variety of CTE subject areas: https://educate.today

Career Exploration category includes Business/Industry, Health/Sports, Law/Criminology, Education, Media Fields, Public Service/Government and more

STEM/STEAM category includes Robotics, Engineering, Infrastructure, Aviation, Transportation and more

National Academy Foundation resources and curriculum for IT, Finance, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism and Engineering/STEM: https://naf.org/resources-for-making-an-effective-switch-to-remote-teaching

Career Cluster-specific lesson ideas, online curriculum and online certifications (curated by the Career & Technical Association of Texas): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gdf2Rw6gu2icdUTW3OSIy1jFjsUzImwXltVsAHhVExs/edit?usp=sharing

Shared drive of lesson plans in construction, woodworking, welding, agriculture, photography, video production, automotive, and other subjects developed by two technology teachers from Southeast Kansas: Email tmaiseroulle@vikingnet.net, using an email address connected to a Google account.

MIT Open Courseware in STEM, Business and Health and Medicine: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic

Quizizz free online quizzes in CTE, Computer Science and Skills, and Health: https://quizizz.com/admin

Described and Captioned Media Program free educational videos for learners with visual and hearing impairments (U.S. Department of Education): https://dcmp.org

Click on "Browse Topics" to find relevant videos

Business topic includes Agriculture, Construction, Energy, Industry, Management and Manufacturing

Careers topic includes Automotive Maintenance and Repair, Industrial Arts, Welding, Job Skills and Occupations

Home and Family topic includes Carpentry, House Construction, Cooking and Child Development

Health and Safety topic

Technology topic

Business/Marketing/Financial Literacy

Business/Marketing Education and Financial Literacy

Business/Marketing/Retail

Financial Literacy

Engineering/Technology/IT

Engineering/Technology/IT

General/Crossdisciplinary Resources

Networking/Robotics/Engineering

CAD/CAM/3D Printing/Makerspaces

Coding

General STEM Resources

Additional Resources

Trade and Industrial Education

General/Crossdisciplinary Resources

Construction/HVAC

Manufacturing/Welding/CAD/CAM

Automotive/Truck/Heavy Vehicle/Diesel

Additional Resources

Counselors/Career Development Professionals

Counselors and Career Development Professionals

Distance Learning Tips & Resources

Distance Learning Tips & Resources

General Distance Learning and Teaching

Learners With Disabilities, Concurrent Enrollment and Other Specific Topics

Student Privacy and Data Security

Upcoming Events

High-quality CTE: Planning for a COVID-19-Impacted School Year (ACTE), June 9-July 23
CTE stakeholders around the country are considering what education might look like during the 2020-21 school year. Whether schools and postsecondary institutions will be able to open fully for the next school year using social distancing methods, utilize a blended approach or remain online, there are significant implications for CTE programs, students and educators. This series of webinars are designed around the elements of the ACTE's Quality CTE Program of Study Framework, and will identify key considerations, guiding questions and emerging best practices that should shape future planning.

Please note that inclusion on this list does not signify ACTE endorsement of a product or service, although we are grateful to contributors for sharing their resources - thank you! - and please remember that any educational technology products, services or tools you use during this challenging time must still comply with FERPA and other laws related to student privacy. In addition to federal guidance on student privacy during COVID-19, the Future of Privacy Forum has developed an Educator's Guide to Student Privacy, Online Learning Best Practices for Schools and Educators as well as COVID-19 privacy and data protection resources relevant to education, health care and other sectors.

June 3: Several expired offers were removed.

June 2: A new CTE Learn offer and ACTE's new webinar series on planning for a COVID-19-impacted school year have been added.
May 27: Webinars about planning for the 2020-21 school year have been added to the Upcoming Events tab. May 11: NCCER remote proctoring has been extended to July 31. April 30: The ServSafe Food Handler offer has been extended through May 31. April 21: Many thanks to the state Departments of Education and CTE in North Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska, as well as the National Science Foundation, for new distance learning resources!
April 20: Today's Class, NOCTI, CareerSafe, Nepris, AgEdNet.com and Home Builders Institute have all extended their initial offers. Please see the relevant tabs for more details.
April 15: OCTAE has published its second FAQ on Perkins and COVID-19, and guidance is now available on donating PPE and other equipment purchased with federal funds. Many thanks to the CTE Coalition and ASE Education Foundation for sharing additional distance learning resources! April 7: Many thanks to Harbor Freight Tools for Schools for sharing additional distance learning resources! April 1: Many thanks to our colleagues at the Career & Technical Association of Texas and the National Partnership to Recruit, Prepare, and Support FCS Educators for sharing new distance learning resources! March 31: OCTAE has published its first FAQ in response to school closures, addressing state and local Perkins planning. March 27: Many thanks to our colleagues at the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and Advance CTE for alerting us to new distance learning resources!

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ACTE and our CTE Learn partner, MaxKnowledge, are pleased to offer CTE educators and institutions 50% off the entire collection of 150+ online CTE Learn credit course and subscription key purchases from June 1-July 31. Use VIP Code CTE50 to make your purchase on CTE Learn or any of the state portals within the CTE Learn network.

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This was an activity I created to be presented to my sisters 1st grade class and at the time, my sons kindergarten class. We were not able to present this in person at my sons school due to COVID-19 so I have decided to convert it into an interactive video that can be used by teachers, parents, superheros, whoever needs it at this time! Enjoy, I hope the kiddos find this activity fun and engaging!

Below is a video built for little ones to introduce them to the construction industry. In this video, they get an opportunity to be a part of a construction team as an estimator to help count and order materials, and help us build a new house for Jack! The video is about 15 minutes long but is meant to be engaging and have optional blueprints or worksheets that can be printed below for them to work-along with the video. I have also provided an excel version of the worksheet if you would like to personalize this activity and tweak it to go along with any lesson plans, requirements or even make it a bit more challenging (multiplication) if you would like.

The photo to the right is the end product elevation of Jack's house built in the video, the layout of the house on the floor and the roof is not shown on the blueprints (meant to keep the creativity for the kiddos) but realized that if some kids are building along who may be prone to frustration if it isn't like the video (my son), they can be guided ahead of time if needed. Also, the blue wall and red wall can be on either the inside (near the tree) or outside (away from the tree).

Also below are the blueprints, a printable worksheet and editable worksheet if you would like to create your own lesson for this video.

These are the 'blueprints' that can also be used as a worksheet. There is a space for them to help count, add and write their numbers during the video

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This was an activity I created to be presented to my sisters 1st grade class and at the time, my sons kindergarten class. We were not able to present this in person at my sons school due to COVID-19 so I have decided to convert it into an interactive video that can be used by teachers, parents, superheros, whoever needs it at this time!

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Material Procurement, Tracking and Delivery Assignment

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Material Procurement, Tracking and Delivery Assignment

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Material procurement and tracking is a very important part of any project. It is the management of our materials. If we don't know how long it takes for the specified materials to be fabricated, where they are coming from or how long it will take to get to our job-site, then we cannot effectively manage our schedule or subcontractors and suppliers. Essentially, will the approved materials be on our job-site in time to maintain our overall schedule? We have our submittal process that verifies the proposed materials are correct per the documents, but we also need to know how long these will take to process, fabricate (Lead Time) and be shipped to our job-site as well.

Lead Time

Lead times are the amount of time it takes to manufacture and deliver materials. This is information we need to discuss and gather from our subcontractors and suppliers to insure accuracy. We cannot assume it will be the same as a previous project because something in the manufacturing process may have changed or there may even be a slight difference in the type of material causing the production time to be different. Therefore, it is always prudent to confirm or ask for this information while collecting submittals.

This information also helps us in identifying what submittals will be a priority to review first and review quickly. If a certain material has a long lead time, this needs to be communicated with the project team and reviewed and processed quickly to insure the material can ultimately be delivered to the site on-time avoiding project delays.

Click below to put it into action to see if we can solve the 'material procurement' challenge.

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Material procurement and tracking is a very important part of any project. It is the management of our materials. If we don't know how long it takes for the specified materials to be fabricated, where they are coming from or how long it will take to get to our job-site, then we cannot effectively manage our schedule or subcontractors and suppliers.

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construction "hard hat" "women in construction" job-site "construction worker" gc "general contractor" subcontractor "construction problems" challanges conflict "conflict resolution" "conflict managment" "handling conflict" subcontractors "change orders" "general contractors" "construction workers" contractors architects building ghh "girl in the hard hat" "project manager" "problems in construction" pm subcontractor mindset upside "upside to conflict" happy wellbeing well-being job-site engineer architect "problems in construction" "problem in construction" "problems in the construction industry" "construction industry" jobsite "job site" safety contractor submittals rfi "construction process" "building process" "design process" design "interior designer" "mechanical engineer" "electrical engineer" "civil engineer" landscape "girls in construction" cm "girl in construction" "construction chick" "women in construction" hardhat concrete "amy powell" amy

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Construction Industry Advocate. We maintain our tools, our buildings and our budgets but what about our people? This channel is designed to maintain our grea...

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WELL Certified | International WELL Building Institute | IWBI

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Write a letter to the future and read the public (but anonymous) letters from others. FutureMe has been delivering letters to the future for millions of people since 2002.

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Benjamin Moore, PDA and TEACH Construction Launch On-Demand Training Program for Painters. Learn More
Instructional Resources:
We have built a library of construction curriculum, and related instructional resources used to teach construction fundamentals and introduction to specific trades. We continue to build resources for advanced training in the high demand trades.

From Lesson Plans to model course shells on our partner Learning Management System (LMS), we are ready to provide you with the tools you need to deliver a high-quality training program.

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Benjamin Moore, PDA and TEACH Construction Launch On-Demand Training Program for Painters. Learn More Instructional Resources: We have built a library of construction curriculum, and related instructional resources used to teach construction fundamentals and introduction to specific trades. We continue to build resources for advanced training in the high demand trades.

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National Middle School Repository of Resources

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National Middle School Repository of Resources

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Today I want to share with you resources from  Instructables that may be of support.

·         Lessons and Resources https://www.instructables.com/teachers/

·         Online courses: https://www.instructables.com/classes/

·         Contests https://www.instructables.com/contest/

·         And more: https://www.instructables.com/projects/

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Free Skilled Trades Videos/Resources - may have fee later

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Free Skilled Trades Videos/Resources - may have fee later

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TradeSkillsU.com is an online learning portal service to support construction training. If you are a training program or a school we can help you.

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Final April 23 Career Technical Education DL Publication.pdf

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How to Make Effective Videos for Learning

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Instructional videos can help students learn at their own pace and free up time for teachers to support students individually.

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TYA/USA is the leading national organization for the professional field of theatre for children and families, representing nearly 900 member theatres, organizations, and individual artists across 42 states. Dedicated to ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality theatre experiences, TYA/USA offers a variety of programming and provides a network of exchange that connects professionals working across the industry.

TYA/USA Responds to COVID-19

TYA/USA is actively working to support the national TYA field through the COVID-19 crisis. Check this page for updates on our response and resources we can share.

Register for a Professional Development Webinar today!

We're offering a series of webinars for TYA professionals responding to COVID-19. Sign up today.

TYA@Home

TYA @ Home is a weekly roundup of virtual performances for young audiences, online education programs, and digital content-offered during the COVID-19 crisis while children can't physically visit the theatre, the rehearsal room, or the classroom.

Explore TYA@Home

Recent News

View TYA Today Online

TYA New Work Spotlight: THE FRE In Conversation with Taylor Mac and Niegel Smith

What happens when celebrated artist Taylor Mac creates a piece for young audiences? From the time that Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis commissioned this ...
Full Article

TYA New Work Spotlight: RIDDLE OF THE TRILOBITES

What happens when you combine innovative artists who mainly create for adult audiences, musical theater, puppetry, and climate change?
Full Article

Seattle Children's Theatre Announces Departure of Artistic Director Courtney Sale

The Seattle Children's Theatre (SCT) Board of Trustees and Managing Director Kevin Malgesini announced today that Courtney Sale, Artistic Director, will step down from ...
Full Article

Upcoming Events

Learn More About Our Events

Webinar
Creating a Show on Zoom: Online Solutions with iTheatrics, Playscripts, and Beat By Beat Press
Details

Webinar
The Virtual Special Needs Arts Classroom: Strategies for Teaching Theatre Remotely
Details

Webinar
Reflecting on Virtual Programming: Deep Dive with the Alliance Theatre
Details

Become a Member. Shape the Future of TYA.

TYA/USA members enjoy many benefits, including access to exclusive online resources, publications, webinars, events, grant and fellowship opportunities, and much more.

Learn More About Membership

Become a Member Members Only

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TYA/USA is the leading national organization for the professional field of theatre for children and families, representing nearly 900 member theatres, organizations, and individual artists across 42 states. Dedicated to ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality theatre experiences, TYA/USA offers a variety of programming and provides a network of exchange that connects professionals working across the industry.

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Supercook: recipe search by ingredients you have at home

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Supercook is a recipe search engine that lets you search by ingredients you have at home. Find thousands of recipes you can make right now with the ingredients you have available at home.

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Home About Just For Educators

Mission Statement

We are passionate about education and sharing our knowledge with the educational community. That's why we have an entire department dedicated to serving the needs of high school and college educators.

The FIDM Community & Educational Affairs department provides tools and experiences that assist in stimulating a rich education environment: free education resources, visit FIDM transportation grants, educator luncheons and events, group tours, and other valuable content exclusively for high school and college educators.

Reaching out to students in high school and college, we provide information about FIDM programs and the career opportunities in fashion, creative business, interior design, digital arts, and entertainment. We meet with educators and students one-on-one, and provide presentations free-of-charge to high school and college educators and their students on curriculum-related topics enriched by FIDM's expertise.

Community & Educational Affairs

To receive more information, you can reach us at:
Toll Free: 800-262-3436
Local: 818-990-2241
Email Us

©2020 FIDM® Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

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Home About Just For Educators We are passionate about education and sharing our knowledge with the educational community. That's why we have an entire department dedicated to serving the needs of high school and college educators.

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Home About Just For Educators Presentations

FIDM offers presentations as a free service to educators and students.

Written to support high school and college curricula, they provide a new perspective on the courses you teach, and make the connection between what is being taught and how that information is used in the industry today. Our well-researched topics capitalize on the areas of FIDM's expertise and comply with state and national standards. Interactive and relevant, these presentations use a variety of teaching tools, including multimedia and hands-on exercises.

©2020 FIDM® Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

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Home About Just For Educators Presentations FIDM offers presentations as a free service to educators and students. Written to support high school and college curricula, they provide a new perspective on the courses you teach, and make the connection between what is being taught and how that information is used in the industry today.

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COVID-19: Helping Students Develop the Motivation to Invest in their Learning While Sheltering at Home

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COVID-19: Helping Students Develop the Motivation to Invest in their Learning While Sheltering at Home

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HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!

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HowStuffWorks has been explaining how things work to curious minds since 1998. Providing factual, unbiased content that's fun to read and makes difficult topics easy to understand.

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How to access VitalSource Helps

For students and instructors accessing Bookshelf for the first time:

1. Go to https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/user/registration

2. Fill out the form in full, make sure to use your institution-provided email address, and click the Create button

3. Confirm you account by finding the, "Please verify your VitalSource Bookshelf account" email and clicking the "Confirm Your Email" button.

4. Once you are in Bookshelf, click the Explore button to search our expansive catalog and borrow up to seven (7) eBooks.

For students and instructors with existing Bookshelf accounts linked to their institution-provided email address:

1. Go to https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/

2. Sign in using your institution-provided email address

3. Once you are in Bookshelf, click the Explore button to search our expansive catalog and borrow up to seven (7) eBooks.

For students and instructors with existing Bookshelf accounts NOT linked to their institution-provided email address:

If you have an existing VitalSource account that you did tie to your institution-provided email address please do the following:

1. Go to https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/

2. Sign in using Bookshelf with your existing credentials

3. Click on the Account menu, and then click on User Info

4. Change your email address to your institution-provided email address, and click the Save Button.

5. Close the VitalSource Account Center Tab

6. Sign out of Bookshelf and then sign back in using your institution-provided email address and existing password.

7. Once you are in Bookshelf, click the Explore button to search our expansive catalog and borrow up to seven (7) eBooks.

Who is eligible for the VitalSource Helps program?

You are eligible if you meet the following criteria:

1. You attend a 2 year or 4 year institution on a semester-based schedule that is listed here:

2. You have an institution-provided email address

3. You are currently enrolled in or teaching a semester-based course(s) that began prior to March 16, 2020.

If you have more questions, please see our VItalSource Helps FAQ for Students and Instructors.

10 out of 22 found this helpful

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Go to https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/user/registration Fill out the form in full, make sure to use your institution-provided email address, and click the Create button Confirm you account by finding the, "Please verify your VitalSource Bookshelf account" email and clicking the "Confirm Your Email" button.

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Get access to SOME CTE books online from Pearson

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Get access to SOME CTE books online from Pearson

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A collaborative document with project ideas for sharing. Must be logged in to Jeffco Google account to access.

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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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Shared this as an example of a presentation with Pear Deck. It may not work for you but feel free to copy it and make it what you need.

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Specialized Instruction and Assessment 4.6.20

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Free online resources for Social/Emotional Skills from IMAGO

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Free online resources for Social/Emotional Skills from IMAGO

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Let's get real, y'all! While the world is battling the coronavirus, teachers and schools are scrambling to figure out what this home learning thing looks like.

I've put together 12 practical tips for remote learning during school closures.

To be clear, this is about this particular crisis situation. These are not the same tips that I would share for a normal school day.

Let's keep this practical. Let's prioritize what's really important right now. Let's share and collaborate to make the best of this situation.
Listen to this article:
. ..

I wish I could do this for you. I wish I could take this burden off of the many teachers who are in a panic right now. Take comfort in the fact that we are all in this together.

Here's some practical advice to consider for home learning during school closures.

1. Grace is Greater Than Grades

We've never faced this problem before, and we need to make sure our priorities are in the right place.

While many are focused on the tech, and how to deliver lessons electronically, we must face a harsher reality.

This isn't just an eLearning day.

This is not a snow day.

This is UNPRECEDENTED.

Students, teachers, and parents are scared and suddenly balancing fears and anxiety with working and teaching from home. All of us, including you and me, need a little grace right now.

Under normal circumstances, I would never recommend completion grades, but right now, they may be the best we can get.

I wrote more about grace in this post.

2. Prioritize Emotional Needs

For some of our students, we are their only safe place. They miss their teachers and the safety of school. Even our students that have safe and loving homes miss their classmates and teachers.

Let's prioritize the emotional needs above the learning needs. I always come back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and meeting these basic needs is more important than a worksheet or checklist.

If you can, schedule a daily or weekly office hours check-in with your class. If your school has enabled a video conferencing tool like Zoom or Hangouts Meet, set aside a couple of hours to be online for any students who want to chat.

Record a good morning video for your students. Show them your workspace, your family, your pet, anything to connect on a human level. Everyone is missing connections right now.

Keep interactions light-hearted when possible. Try having a joke of the day, funny video of the day, or playing a game.

3. Choose a Platform and Stick with It!

As I learned many weeks ago from my interview with Jennifer Pearson, a teacher who had been teaching her students in China remotely for many weeks, this is NOT the time to throw a bunch of new tools at our teachers and students.

If you were using Google Classroom, or another LMS before your school closed, great! If not, you may be scrambling to figure this out-and that's okay. ( Here are some cheat sheets to help with Google Classroom.)

But as a campus, and as a teacher, choose your platform and stick with it! Consistency is your best friend right now. It doesn't need to be fancy. It doesn't need to be innovative.

Create a one-stop-shop for your students-something I have always recommended. Whether that is Google Classroom, a Google Doc, a Google Site, SeeSaw, Microsoft Teams, whatever, keep it simple! Only use new tools if you haven't been using this kind of technology at all!

We are in survival mode. If we can get kids to engage in any kind of learning right now, we should count ourselves lucky.

4. Prioritize Offline Activities for Equity

We need more offline activities than online activities for multiple reasons:

Digital equity is a significant problem in most areas, so we must give students offline options.

Even students with devices and an Internet connection, shouldn't spend all day in front of a screen.

The distractions online have always been an issue, but now more than ever, as coronavirus talks dominate every media.

The stress of this on parents, teachers, and students is tremendous. Keep it simple!

Give students offline options for every activity you assign. Get creative! Offline or paper choice boards, at home BINGO, scavenger hunts, and more, can keep students engaged and entertained. They don't have to require rigor and critical thinking right now. I'm sorry, but just keeping it real.

5. Use a Simple Weekly Checklist

Jennifer Pearson also recommended the checklist idea, but I've seen so many crazy templates floating around, it's essential to keep things simple.

It doesn't have to be daily. Many schools are embracing a partial week schedule, which I think is a good idea. Assigning activities for the week will simplify communications and the turn-in process.

This can be a simple Google Doc or Word Doc, printed for those without access. I would even consider creating a 2-3 week checklist to simplify even more.

Check out the weekly checklists shared in this post.

6. Reduce Work by AT LEAST HALF

Jennifer Pearson learned early on that you cannot replicate the school schedule every day at home. She recommends reducing the workload by half. I say you may need to take that even further than half.

Again, we cannot replicate the school day at home.

7. It's NOT About the FREE Tech Tools

Times are tough. Remote teaching and learning is hard, and many teachers, students, and parents find themselves increasingly dependent on technology right now.

I am happy to see technology embraced, even if it is out of necessity.

However, the focus of what we teach should still be aligned with our learning goals, not the technology.

In fact, now, more than ever, we need to be equitable, patient, and full of grace for all our learners.

I get it. Right now, teachers need help. They are searching for it, and desperate to find a solution to help them manage this mess we call remote learning, home learning, distance learning...Heck! We don't even know what to call it because it is so new and unprecedented.

Take a deep breath. You got this. You are a teacher, and our bottom line is still about learning and supporting our students, not about finding the BEST tech tool.

Yes, it's great that so many are available during this crisis, but these giant lists are not useful to the average classroom teacher.

As Jennifer Pearson says, use what your students know. New tools can cause assignments to be late or wrong and can add to the anxiety over the situation.

Digital learning leaders may find these lists useful, but for the average teacher or parent, it just adds to the confusion and chaos.

Please do not overwhelm your classroom teachers with one hundred free tech tools.

If you are a leader, take this list down to 3-7 tools for each grade level or subject area.

8. All Teacher Videos Should Be Recorded

If you have the capability, record any live teacher videos, so students who cannot attend live don't feel left out. Even the ones without access may appreciate this when they return to school.

While we have to be careful and follow privacy and protection laws for recording children if teachers are willing to record their lessons or a good morning video, let's make sure every child gets a chance to see it. That may mean that these are saved for later viewing for students without access.

9. Give Students DETAILED Directions

Remember, without you there by their side; students have no context. They need even more detailed directions than usual.

Here's a post on How to Package Your Digital Assignments that should give you some ideas.

10. No Assigned Group Work!

As much as I usually encourage collaborative learning, now is not the time. This will over-complicate things for you and your students. Do not require that students collaborate or work together.

Those students that can work together are already getting on Facetime to share the answers. Yes, I said it, and you know it will happen. Yet another reason to keep it simple and understand we can't control the environment.

11. Fail Forward

We all have to have a growth mindset through this process and accept the fact that this is not going to be perfect.

The control freak teachers and administrators will have to let that go. There is no way to control this. There is no way to know precisely what is happening in the home learning environment.

It's all going to be fine, even if it is not perfect. Even if there are things we don't know and cannot predict at this moment, it is what it is.

I beg administrators not to micromanage teachers and students during this time. Even if you ask teachers and students to track EVERYTHING right now, it will not be accurate. Treat your teachers as the professionals they are. Trust them to know what's happening with their students. Just because you can't control it, doesn't mean we should be micromanaging. This doesn't help the situation at all, and in fact, it is adding more stress and anxiety to an already stressful situation.

No matter what your role in education, we all have to let go and accept that this is out of our control. You will learn things from day one. You will adapt and be flexible because you are an educator, and that's what we've always done.

12. Practice Self Care

Don't forget to take care of yourself during all of this! Being a teacher is hard under normal circumstances.

You are about to put on your superhero cape and FLY! I know you can do what needs to be done, but be sure you take time to relax, exercise, pray, meditate, take a long bath, whatever you can do to keep your stress and anxiety down so you can be there for your students.

And of course, practice social distancing, stay home if you can, and by all means, WASH YOUR HANDS!

This is NOT Our Tech Moment.

As much as technology has suddenly become a priority, even for the most resistant teachers, this is not our moment. By "our," I mean all of us who work in edtech, support edtech, promote edtech, and love edtech.

Leaders in digital learning are also suddenly very popular, and this is our moment to help and support.

Technology will help us survive this, but we also have to accept that survival mode means we can't expect innovative, dynamic learning experiences in an environment we can't control. Even in schools that are working hard to send home devices and hot spots, we have to accept the fact that we have ZERO control over what happens in the home.

When we return to school, I do believe there will be a renewed interest in digital learning, and then we will have our moment.

Thank you for all you do!

I don't think there has been a time when I have ever been more proud to be an educator!

Resources to Help

FREE Resources, Podcasts, Blog Posts, Cheat Sheets, & More!

I am working day and night to create FREE resources, videos, podcasts, cheat sheets, and more. New podcasts and blog posts are in the works to help you through this.

I created a brand new Google Classroom Cheat Sheets, one for teachers, and one for students. I hope these help more teachers who suddenly find themselves having to learn a new platform. (54 pages!!!)

I've created a Remote Learning Resource page, curating all of the resources that are specifically useful at this time.

I have been blogging for more than six years, and have created hundreds of free articles, podcasts, ebooks, cheat sheets, webinars, and more. Check out FREE PD for Teachers Stuck at Home.

I am also creating and adding new YouTube videos to my channel. Subscribe to the Shake Up Learning channel so you get notified.

FREE Tech Coach Collaborative

I am also putting together a collaborative group for digital learning leaders and tech coaches. It's a work in progress, but we are better together.

Join us for weekly meetings and shared resources.

I have also discounted my current online courses by 50%. I wish I could give these away for free.
Please know, there is a cost to these courses, the platform, customer service, and providing service hours. The purchase of these courses helps me continue to create all of the FREE resources that I provide.
MUST USE COUPON = homelearning at checkout to claim the 50% discount.

This includes the following courses:

© Shake Up Learning 2020. 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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12 Practical Tips for Remote Learning During School Closures - SULS057

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Let's get real, y'all! While the world is battling the coronavirus, teachers and schools are scrambling to figure out what this home learning thing looks like. I've put together practical tips for home learning during school closures.To be clear, this is about this very specific crisis situation.

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Variety of short videos on many careers

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An official website of the United States government

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Many teachers across Colorado have submitted lesson plans to share with FACS teachers in middle and high schools. Please use the sub-pages below to navigate the lesson plan bank. Only lessons that have been submitted are provided. Many lessons can be used in multiple courses, so be sure to browse through each category.

**Please note: some lesson plans were submitted before the new standards and alignment process was completed in 2011. Therefore, the FACS standard number and academic standards will not align with the current standards system.

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CO Lesson Plans - Colorado Family and Consumer Sciences

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Family and Consumer Science (FACS)programs stimulate students to manage the challenges of living and working in a diverse global society. Our unique focus is on families, work and their interrelationships. This site is dedicated to helping the Colorado FACS teachers keep updated on relevant issues dealing with career and technical education across the United States.

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NCCER Home - The leader in construction training, education, workforce development and accreditation.

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NCCER is recognized by the construction industry as the training, assessment, certification and career development standard for the construction and maintenance craft professional.

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AGC of America offers a number of educational programs designed to enhance career development opportunities for individuals and improve the performance of construction companies and the industry. Through nationally developed programs delivered directly by AGC of America to those offered through AGC's network of chapters and member firms, AGC of America education programs and training resources address core topics essential to any construction professional and company.

Curricula
AGC's curricula programs are designed to be instructor-led and delivered in-seat. These courses can be held by AGC Chapters, within a construction firm or through other organizations and academic institutions. AGC curricula addresses these important industry topics:

Credentials
AGC offers two national credentials for Building Information Modeling and Lean Construction. Those that complete the entire BIM Education Program or Lean Construction Education Program are eligible to sit for an exam to earn a Certificate of Management-Building Information Modeling (CM-BIM) or Certificate of Management-Lean Construction (CM-Lean).

Management Programs
AGC hosts three national management programs on Construction Project Management, Advanced Management and Leadership. These multi-day programs provide an intensive learning experience for those looking to increase their knowledge and advance their career.

Safety & Health
AGC's safety management education opportunities and resources provide construction professionals what they need to know in the essential areas of safety and health. These programs include:

Webinars
AGC offers webinar-based education throughout the year on a wide variety of construction industry issues from newly released industry regulations to innovative processes and technology. AGC's WebEd program delivers the information you need to be successful in the comfort of your home or office.

Continuing Education
AGC is an authorized provider of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and various professional development credits. Look to AGC to earn your CEUs for license renewals and career development.
No matter the size of your firm or the type of work you do, AGC of America has education and training programs designed to help grow you and your business.

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AGC of America offers a number of educational programs designed to enhance career development opportunities for individuals and improve the performance of construction companies and the industry. Through nationally developed programs delivered directly by AGC of America to those offered through AGC's network of chapters and member firms, AGC of America education programs and training resources address core topics essential to any construction professional and company.

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We know social distancing is hard. So we are here to give you and your family some fun ideas and activities to keep busy while we are all doing our part by staying at home! Introducing: Jeffco Makes.

An online platform to get you and your family making, baking and shaking! We will be posting three different activities each week. Pick one (or all) that you and your family want to do.

Be sure to snap pics and video of your Jeffco Makes activities. Use #jeffcomakes on social media, we'll be featuring your projects, activities, and creations each week.

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We know social distancing is hard. So we are here to give you and your family some fun ideas and activities to keep busy while we are all doing our part by staying at home! Introducing: Jeffco Makes. An online platform to get you and your family making, baking and shaking!

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National FFA and Discovery Education have created a robust, comprehensive career resource to help you explore the broad range of careers in agriculture.

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Utilize these resources focused on agriculture careers to enhance your classroom instruction or use as standalone lessons and activities. Whether students are learning about agriculture careers for the first time or are diving into specific details; the implementation guides, activities and field trip guides are designed to further educate about the multitude of opportunities that exist in the industry of agriculture.

Virtual Field Trips Guides

Animal Systems Careers-Lesson Series

1. Careers with Animals: Introduction

2. Careers with Animals: Production

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Utilize these resources focused on agriculture careers to enhance your classroom instruction or use as standalone lessons and activities. Whether students are learning about agriculture careers for the first time or are diving into specific details; the implementation guides, activities and field trip guides are designed to further educate about the multitude of opportunities that exist in the industry of agriculture.

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"education reform" "economic justice" "high school" "linked learning" teaching teacher student support

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Curious what a Robotics Engineer does? Looking for information about the skills necessary to become a Superior Court Judge? Explore our Day in the Life video...

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Coronavirus Resources for Physical Education and Health

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SHAPE America Coronavirus resources help physical education and health education teachers across the country as many schools and school districts are moving to distance learning due to COVID-19.

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After spending many years away from Colorado painting commercial billboards and murals, Patrick Kane McGregor is back in his hometown of Denver honing his style and developing his commission business. His reputable standing as an artist, work ethic and solid network of collaborators are gaining him the artistic control he desires.

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FREE: Transportation and Construction Girl Career Videos 

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FREE: Transportation and Construction Girl Career Videos 

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Superstar Women in Transportation & Construction talk about their careers and how they got where they are today.

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TC Girl Home Career Week TC Girl Day Scholarships About TC Girl Contact TC Girl Video Gallery

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Business Resources started by Amber Hall- open to Jeffco and Littleton

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Business Resources started by Amber Hall- open to Jeffco and Littleton

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Future Business Leaders Of America-Phi Beta Lambda

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Success Starts with FBLA! 2022 National Elections Results Start a New Chapter Check Out the 2022 Sponsorship Toolkit Apply for the FBLA-Middle Level Council FBLA Help Desk FBLA is the largest business career and technical student organization in the world. Each

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Supporting Middle Level Educators through COVID-19

During this unprecedented time, educators are being asked to support their students and school communities while adapting to an entirely different way of teaching almost overnight. This can be especially challenging when working with young adolescents, who are already going through a transformative time of development. At the same time, we know the power of AMLE members to support one another and share resources that are working well to keep our students on track, both academically and personally.

Explore and add to AMLE's crowdsourced and curated resources for advisory and online learning. And don't forget to join us for an upcoming webinar or roundtable to hear from experts on a range of topics related to COVID-19 and share your own perspective.
Search Resources
*These resources have been submitted by middle level educators and curated by a team of non-staff AMLE members. Any linkages from this web site to the web site of another party do not constitute or imply AMLE's endorsement, recommendation, or favoring of said resource. Users should ensure that a resource is authorized for use by their respective school leadership.

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Supporting Middle Level Educators through COVID-19 During this unprecedented time, educators are being asked to support their students and school communities while adapting to an entirely different way of teaching almost overnight. This can be especially challenging when working with young adolescents, who are already going through a transformative time of development.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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The following are brief descriptions for all of the SkillsUSA Championships competitions. The official rules for each event are found in the SkillsUSA Championships Technical Standards. For contests that are too new for inclusion in the SkillsUSA Championships Technical Standards, there is a link at the end of each contest description.

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A necessary instructional resource for HOSA chapter members and the local Health Science teacher/HOSA advisor is Section B. Section B provides all current information pertaining to the HOSA Competitive Events Program to enhance leadership and technical skill development in the classroom and to guide competition at the local, district/regional, state and international levels. This publication includes General Rules and Regulations; specific Competitive Events Guidelines (including competency based performance rating sheets); and Competitive Event Appendices - all pertaining to administration of, preparation for and participation in HOSA competitive events.

2.23.20 = Life Threatening Situations skill times have been updated.

2.4.20 = MRC Partnership Rubric has been updated to clarify the number of items included in the binder pockets.

12.19.19 = Medical Assisting event guidelines have been updated to include Health History and Medical Office Registration links.

11.11.19 = Event guidelines are not required to be shown at ILC. Check with your State Advisor regarding guideline requirements for Regional and State Conferences.

10.31.19= PSA guidelines were reposted to correct points errors and add the combined rating sheet.

10.27.19 = Dental Science has been reposted to change the total points for Skill V.

10.14.19 = Health Care Issues Exam and Organizational Leadership guidelines were reposted to clarify that Voting Delegates will be allowed to participate in both of these events.

10.10.19 = Pharmacology, Pharmacy Science and Epidemiology guidelines were reposted to clarify that calculators are now allowed in the event for ILC. Extemporaneous Writing guidelines were reposted to clarify pre-formatting of the Word document. Public Health guideilnes were reposted to clarify that Middle School members must bring hard copies of the Verification Form and Reference Page. Speaking Skills guidelines were reposted to clarify eligibility form process for Middle School members.

10.8.19 = Dynamic Decisions guidelines were reposted to correct inconsistencies in the allowed preparation time in round 2.

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A necessary instructional resource for HOSA chapter members and the local Health Science teacher/HOSA advisor is Section B. Section B provides all current information pertaining to the HOSA Competitive Events Program to enhance leadership and technical skill development in the classroom and to guide competition at the local, district/regional, state and international levels.

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Career and Leadership Development Events | National FFA Organization

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Career and Leadership Development Events develop college and career readiness skills. The competitive events serve as an outgrowth of instruction in the agricultural education classroom for FFA members in grades 7 to 12.Through CDEs and LDEs, participating FFA members are challenged to develop critical thinking skills and effective decision-making skills, foster teamwork and promote communication while recognizing the value of ethical competition and individual achievement.

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Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) Events are Competitive Events in which members compete at the regional/district, state, and national levels. Students are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills, and career preparation. STAR Events allow students to compete individually or as a team. There are more than 30 STAR Events students can choose to compete in, all of which recognize participants who demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities to actively identify an issue concerning families, careers, or communities, research the topic, and develop and implement a project to advocate for positive change.

STAR Events offer individual skill development and application of learning through the following activities:

Cooperative - teams work to accomplish specific goals

Individualized - an individual member works alone to accomplish specific goals

Competitive - individual or team performance is measured by an established set of criteria

STAR Event Resources

Not sure which STAR Event is for you? The following quiz can help you narrow down your choices. Be sure to ask your chapter adviser for the STAR Event guidelines and discuss any eligibility criteria before making your final decision!

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Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) Events are Competitive Events in which members compete at the regional/district, state, and national levels. Students are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills, and career preparation. STAR Events allow students to compete individually or as a team.

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Competitive Events | High School | DECA Inc.

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Principles of Business Administration Events

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Create and send customizable rubrics and scores to students by email for any assignment.

Create and send customizable rubrics and scores to students by email for any assignment.

Use Online Rubric for any assignment, including presentations, performance, and participation grades, and send grades to your students without the hassle and waste of paper and copiers.

Online Rubric supports multiple emails for each student in the case of revisions and allows you to use previously created rosters and rubrics within the add-on.

Created and maintained by Mr. Jungsun Moon, an English teacher in Chicago.

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October 7, 2018: v2.72: Fixed the bug that delayed the display of the Google Classroom roster import.

August 9, 2018: v2.71: Fixed a bug that caused the import rubric function to stall on a blank import window.

July 12, 2018: v2.7: You're now able to import rosters from Google Classroom. I'll be returning to the classroom in the fall, so expect more updates as I use the tool more frequently.

November 14, 2016 - v2.61: Fixed the bug that opened the wrong dialog when trying to set a multiplier. Thanks to Ramona L. and Cynthia B. for reporting it!

October 13, 2016 - v2.6: Removed email validation on the front end, which allows for a wider range of email addresses AND allows for multiple recipients by separating each email address with a comma.

October 6, 2016 - v2.5.03: Fixed import rubric bug. The import rubric process would stop before creating the email template.

August 6, 2016 - v2.5: Added the ability to set scaled scores for rubrics, instead of using simple addition of rubric scores to determine grade. (version 2.5.01 and 02 fix bugs I should have caught before publishing. Sorry!)
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Create and send customizable rubrics and scores to students by email for any assignment. Create and send customizable rubrics and scores to students by email for any assignment. Use Online Rubric for any assignment, including presentations, performance, and participation grades, and send grades to your students without the hassle and waste of paper and copiers.