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Book Creator is a simple tool for creating awesome digital books. Create your own teaching resources or have your students take the reins.

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Book Creator is a simple tool for creating awesome digital books. Create your own teaching resources or have your students take the reins.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vdas_vz0YzQcJSceQCTy5I-U7Z1viINlQ4QSXCnE62I/edit?usp=sharing

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Adding Picture Icons on your Mac Desktop Folders

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The first image many people have of school is a circle of small children, sitting cross-legged, paying attention (or not) to an adult reading a book aloud and showing pictures to the class. Indeed, presidents and sports stars choose exactly this photo op when visiting schools. And teachers across the country reenact the scene daily-or did until a few weeks ago.

As schools, teachers and families face the shock of abruptly shifting to online education, one small question has been how to shift these read alouds to Zoom, Facebook, Google Hangouts and YouTube, the spaces where many classes continue to meet. A second question has been given almost equal importance: Is reading a book to students online even legal?

The short answer is, well, yes. While many well-intentioned commentators have warned teachers against this practice, the fact is that copyright law-specifically fair use-permits many read-aloud activities online. As instructors and learners adapt to new educational environments, copyright concerns about reading aloud need not be among the challenges they face.

What Is Fair Use?

Fair use is a provision of copyright law that allows many reading aloud activities to be translated from the classroom to online learning.

In short, fair use is a limit on copyright law that allows anyone to use a copyrighted work for a "transformative" purpose that doesn't harm the core market for the original (meaning you can't compete with the publishers' efforts to sell books). This means that when teachers reading aloud online, using tools like school websites, learning management systems or live webcasts, fair use enables most of the same practices that take place in person.

In the U.S., fair use law takes into consideration the purpose of the use, the nature of the underlying work, the amount used, and the effect on the market for the original work. Where reading aloud is concerned, these factors can be condensed into two questions:

1. What is the new educational purpose for which teachers and students are reading this material to each other?

2. What, if any, is the harm to the core market for the original book or resource?

For example, reading a popular picture book aloud to a class of pre-readers can be a transformative activity if it supports a specific lesson or is designed to reinforce group identity. The point is not whether the book in question originally was intended to be read aloud, but whether this reading takes on new significance in the class, which it typically does.

To answer the second question, you have to ask whether the reading would interfere materially with the sale of physical or electronic copies. The same logic applies to chapter books, even if audiobooks are commercially available. In general, as Carrie Russell of the American Library Association has pointed out: "One is not displacing a sale or serving as a substitute to the work ... An audiobook is not the same as storytime."

In an emergency where student access to commercial learning materials is curtailed, educators' freedom to read under fair use is enhanced. Temporary activities might include:

Open postings on YouTube to address lack of school-issued devices and LMS support

Readings to compensate for missing access to physical resources

Materials reflecting a broadened view of the teaching mission to serve displaced students generally.

It's important to understand why you're reading aloud to understand if you can rely on fair use.

Teachers read aloud in the classroom-and prompt their students to do so-for many reasons: to model fluency, to build comprehension and interpretive skills, and to support learning at different levels. Understanding why you're reading to your students is an important first step in making your fair use analysis.

Reading aloud, through digital tools and in person, is consistent with a vision of educational universal design. It puts students with different personal circumstances, including family situation, level of preparation, language competency, disability and health, on a better footing to enjoy equitable access to their education.

Fair use is flexible-it's not specific to certain types of content or online platforms.

Since fair use looks more at why materials are being used than the types, both fiction and non-fiction texts are fair use-eligible, depending on the context. And the same rationale that justified reading the text aloud also applies to displaying the illustrations.

With that said, fair use is not unlimited in scope. Extensive readings from textbooks and other commercial learning materials, for example, should be approached with more caution. Making readings permanently and generally available on public platforms should be avoided-though we recognize that this may be impossible under emergency conditions. In normal times, the "safest" choice may be a controlled Learning Management System, but this is not by any means a necessity. School-based or teacher-maintained websites are another option, as are dedicated streaming channels on YouTube or similar platforms.

In the current emergency, some publishers and authors have announced that they will permit certain read-aloud activities. This is a generous act, but permission (or refusal to give permission) neither expands nor restricts the scope of fair use.

Here are some cases where fair use enables reading online, and a few where it doesn't.

In these cases, teachers may want to read materials online, and could look to fair use for support.

A teacher reads and shows two picture books to a class as part of a longer 30-minute lesson including discussion questions and context.

Reading an introductory segment of a nonfiction text aloud to provide students with background material, and offering pre-recorded segments for students to choose to listen to next so that students can select their own learning paths.

Beginning class sessions with a chapter from a novel, to orient students to the online classroom and to get them focused for learning.

In an online recording posted to a LMS, a teacher reads a few introductory paragraphs from a commercial textbook and goes on to highlight (and display on video) segments of the reading that students are going to do independently.

Teachers and students collaborate to read texts in parallel, contributing to a distributed reading project that documents both shared experiences and diverse voices.

In all of these cases, the use is anchored in a transformative educational purpose and it does not substitute for normal purchases of the work. These are non-controversial examples of fair use in action.

In some cases, the direct tie to the teaching and learning purpose is less clear, or the relationship to the original commercial market is too close. Here are a few activities schools and teachers should avoid activities without careful, specific guidance or permission:

Establishing a free YouTube channel hosting readings of numerous picture books and chapter books, not directly tied to their classroom teaching.

A school system trying to save money suggests that teachers consider reading review questions from commercial worksheets aloud rather than acquiring copies to distribute for student use.

Overall, fair use provides a powerful tool to enable teaching and learning online. Going forward, fair use is critical to adapt teaching and learning practices, such as read-alouds, to ensure that all students have full access to education. While the current emergency compels immediate response to these changing circumstances, the existing lack of equitable access for all students, particularly students with disabilities and marginalized students, remains an ongoing call to action.
Ed. note Prue Adler, Michael Carroll, Will Cross, Pernille Ripp and Carrie Russell contributed to this article. : On Tuesday, March 31, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET the authors will host a webinar discussing this topic and covering common scenarios that arise for teachers and students. Registration for the webinar is required and available here

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Can Teachers Read Books Out Loud Online? Actually, Yes. - EdSurge News

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The first image many people have of school is a circle of small children, sitting cross-legged, paying attention (or not) to an adult reading a book aloud and showing pictures to the class. Indeed, presidents and sports stars choose exactly this photo op when visiting schools.

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Author Permissions- Book Reading Recordings

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Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of the first things schools did when shifting to remote learning was to hold regular video meetings with their students. These can vary based on the ages of the students and the frequency of when a teacher interacts with their students, but most teachers realized quickly that they can't use the same behavioral strategies (like proximity) that they use in a physical classroom. This can lead to a lack of student engagement and involvement in what is trying to be taught regardless of age.

These 25 strategies listed here are not meant to take the place of deeper learning. That kind of learning is generally better when done with a mix of asynchronous learning. That said, in order to get our students to that deeper state of learning with greater depth of knowledge (DOK) levels, we need to make sure they are engaged when we have synchronous conversations and discussions. Some of these strategies take little set-up while others might take more time and energy to make them really successful. The purpose of these tools is to draw students into the lesson/activity and make them engaged and looking forward to your next virtual class meeting.

While there are a lot of video meeting solutions out there, I'm going to focus many of the tools around the Zoom platform as it has some of the best interactive features and seems to be the most widely accepted in K-12 schools across the country. However, as many of these strategies can be used with any video platform or device, I only focused on Zoom-centric ideas on the first 5 strategies, the rest you can use on any platform. Also, kids (especially teenagers) can say and do that darnedest things, especially when being remotely hidden behind a screen. As you would with the physical classroom, I would strongly encourage teachers discuss norms when it comes to interacting over video chat with their students prior to any of these strategies.

Here are 25 strategies to engage students on your next Zoom meeting:

I'm going to start out with one of the basics. While you may be doing many of your chats with just video, don't forget that you have the ability to share part or all of your screen with your students. This can be something as simple as sharing a question of the day to an entire slide show. If you have a slideshow that you've already created for use in your classroom, don't recreate the wheel, just launch it on your share screen and use built in Zoom tools like 'raise hand' or the chat room to have a floating backchannel as you go through your slides. One bit of advice, check what items you have on your desktop and in your "favorites" bar of an internet browser before you share that with your students. There's nothing more embarrassing than you students seeing your latest beach pic or maybe your bookmark for you favorite drink recipe.

2. Use the Whiteboard feature

Of course, if you don't want to share your screen you can always use the built-in whiteboard feature that comes with Zoom. This feature can take some getting used to, especially if you are using a mouse or trackpad. To use it, simply go to share your screen and choose "whiteboard". A little tip - if you have tablet like an iPad, install the Zoom app and then join the meeting with your iPad as well. This works better for drawing especially if you have a nice stylus or Apple Pencil. (just be careful you have one of the devices muted to avoid echoes) Of course, as you get more comfortable with Zoom and student expectations, let your students also use the whiteboard feature to share their understanding. If you are not using Zoom, a tool like Classroomscreen.com has a bevy of tools including a whiteboard if you share your screen with your students.

3. Enable the Annotation Features

Another feature that you could use when sharing slides, photos, or websites is the annotation tools. You'll want to check your account settings to make sure these features are enabled by default. Having these tools enabled, you'll be able write over any image, highlight certain features of a website, and make the viewing experience for your students much more interactive.

My favorite of all the Zoom features for learning is the ability to create breakout rooms for your students. Unlike whiteboard and annotation features, the ability to create breakout rooms are not enabled by default. You'll want to go into your account settings to enable this ability before using it with your students. Once enabled, you can have Zoom either automatically or manually assign students into rooms. Even if it's automatically assigning, you can swap students out depending on group dynamics (note: it helps to have your students put their name on their Zoom login). You can even rename the rooms depending on group names or topics before assigning certain students to each room. The great thing about these rooms is that it can create a more collaborative setting than the large whole-group zoom experience. As the moderator you can float around and join rooms to check in on the discussion, post an announcement to all rooms, or even place a time limit on them. Once you ask students to rejoin the whole group and end the breakouts, they'll have 60-seconds to wrap-up their discussion and rejoin. A powerful way to enable collaboration remotely! Check out the video below for a quick how-to:

If you've been in any Zoom meeting the past couple of months, you've probably seen all sorts of crazy and fun virtual backgrounds. These can be hilarious but also distracting so some educators have disabled this feature for their group meetings. However, there could be some productive uses of these virtual backgrounds. Some examples of using virtual backgrounds might be re-enacting moments in history with the appropriate backdrop, selecting a geographic landmark they might be studying or "visiting" virtually, or just having students select either a solid green or red background to quickly show if they agree or disagree with a topic (hint: use Grid view for this). No matter the reason, virtual backgrounds can be much more than everyone acting like they are a character from The Office.

If you really want your students to focus on everyone in the classroom, play a game of "I Spy" backgrounds. You can do this either with or without virtual backgrounds, but in essence you are describing things that you notice in the background of someone's zoom call. Students then quickly have to search all the attendees and see which student's background is being described. A fun, 5-minute way to get students hooked into their next Zoom meeting.

Probably one of the most popular games to play with students is a virtual scavenger hunt. The premise is simple, you have a list of items and then ask students to run through their house or apartment attempting to find the items and show them on the screen. A quick word of advice on this is to be sure you are not picking exact objects for them to find like "a toy cell phone". Rather, create a category that could involve all sorts of different objects that qualify like "an object with numbers on it." This will reveal a lot of different interpretations of the clue as well as not limiting what students can find around them. You could also use software like Eventzee or Goosechase to do a virtual scavenger hunt throughout the day or week where students capture items you've identified with their camera.

Last week, I got to host a virtual trivia night via Zoom. We had over 150 people during the event that drew lots of positive feedback for keeping them engaged while also doing something fun during this stressful time. I used a pro-level software called Crowdpurr to run my event, but I could just as easily do something similar using a tool like Kahoot! or Quizziz. These quizzes or trivia can either be done live or student-paced. Having the scores decrease as time dwindles down on each question also prevents students from "googling" the answers as it will affect their score. Check out the latest " Challenge " feature within Kahoot to create more of a self-paced challenge for your students that might have limited access to technology or can't participate synchronously.

In the classroom, we use the classic "raise your hand" to gather feedback from students. In Zoom, it's no different as there is a "Raise hand" button available to students, but some savvy teachers have also figured out that the chat room can act as an impromptu survey as long as it involves brief responses. For better tracking, you could always use a tools like Nearpod, Polleverywhere, or Peardeck to gather feedback via a second screen or browser tab. Playing a game like "would you rather" would work well to test this out before using it more in-depth in later lessons.

Gathering feedback in polls is one way to interact with students, but you could also use a shared collaborative space like a Padlet or Ziteboard to have students discuss and brainstorm ideas on shared spaces. You could also combine this with the breakout rooms (#4 from above) to have each group brainstorm a topic while you navigate from board to board. A tip here is to create the "walls" or spaces for the students to collaborate on so that you have a live link to what they are working on. Once you've split them into groups, share your link to each group to work on.

Yes, you can share your screen and even your slides with your students via a tool like Google Slides, Keynote or Powerpoint. But since you have them live, why not use a tool like Nearpod to actually guide them through the learning with you. Ideally, this would work best with two screens, but since everything these days is web-based you could guide them through the presentation on one screen while they follow along to your voice on the other. Doing this on an iPad? Share the join code with your students and then have them switch to the Nearpod app while leaving the Zoom app open in the background so they can hear your voice while following along. Of course, one of the best parts of using a tool like Nearpod is all the extra features like Virtual field trips, 3D models, Microsoft Sway, collaborative boards and more. One thing I've tried that worked well was embedding a PollEverywhere poll within my Nearpod. That way students didn't have to jump out of the app ever.

Silence can be awkward in the classroom. It's even more awkward when you are looking at more than two dozen teenagers on the screen. That said, it's important to let students pause and reflect throughout the lesson. Using a countdown timer either on a slide, video or on a tool like ClassroomScreen.com helps students know when they should break from their pause or reflection. As I will mention on my next point, students need breaks from lengthy instruction throughout their day whether they be on a screen or not. If you are hosting a 50-minute lesson online, build in a 5 minute break for students to stretch or get a glass of water to keep their brain active.

Taking breaks throughout a lengthy lesson are important whether it be for a reflective pause or just an opportunity to stretch. Using tools like GoNoodle, teachers can lead a virtual dance party in their remote classroom to get the kids up and moving. One word of advice here, if you are playing a video through your system speakers, make sure you don't have headphones on or adjust the audio source in Zoom by clicking on the up-carrot symbol next to "Mute" to change your selection of audio output. (see image on the right)

With everything being digital, it's also nice to take a break from digital as you already have a Zoom meeting occupying the students' screens. There are a wide variety of analog strategies you could use with your students by using paper and pencil. One might be sharing a math problem on your screen while students work out the results. Then, countdown and have them reveal their answers to their cameras at the same time. I've also seen teachers have success doing a "directed drawing" by pointing their webcam or phone camera down to a sheet a paper while they give instruction and then have students share their creations at the end.

A big struggle with online learning via video is keeping students focus and attention, especially to the finer details. The game "Box of Lies" was made popular by Jimmy Fallon (video below) and would be a creative way to see if students are paying attention. The premise would be that the teacher or student has an object out of camera view and then has to describe the object. You could do this with all sorts of other ideas from historical figures to using descriptive words in another language.

Taking that directed drawing from #14 to the next level by doing a Monster drawing. In this activity, a teacher or student read aloud descriptions of their drawing but don't let other students see it. They have listen for information like "my monster has a rectangle body" or "my monster has 5 eyes, one of them is big and in the middle" to figure out the drawing. This helps kids both with descriptive words but also with listening and translating. In the end, have students show their creations on the screen to see who got closest to the description. This activity could be used in other areas as well such as re-creating a story character or describing a graph in math.

Distance learning doesn't just have to be about kids filling out digital worksheets or playing online learning games. Students can still do long-term projects either individually or in groups even though they final results may be different than what was done traditionally in the classroom. Using online project management and productivity tools like Trello, MeisterTask or ClickUp can help students struggling with organization and timelines. Coupling those tools with video meeting check-ins can help kids learn how to collaborate and complete a project online over a length of time.

BreakoutEDU has always been one of my favorite ways to engage students of all ages by creating a series of clues and challenges that the students have to uncover. For the last couple of years they've been offering Digital BreakOutEDU as an online version of their platform. Teachers could leverage the "breakout" room feature of Zoom with a Digital BreakOutEDU and have teams solve the challenges within a certain timeframe. The great thing about their platform is they have already done most of the heavy lifting in creating the BreakOuts for you based on subject and age level. You can also check out this " Build Your Own " resource if you don't have the funds to purchase a subscription.

A fun non-tech game to play is "Who's who?". In this game, students privately message the teacher some facts about themselves and then the teacher reveals the clues. Students then write down their guesses as to who the person is based on the clues. This could also be turned into "Two truths and a lie" fairly easily. Other adaptations could be students sending clues about historical figures, book characters, etc. that the class has to figure out.

Who doesn't love a good game of BINGO? While this isn't the classic game with numbers, balls, and clever calls, it is using the set-up of Bingo as a way to review facts, geographical locations, scientific terms, or even mathematical applications. Using the Flippity.net BINGO tool, you create what goes in the squares and then you read out the clues while students fill out their own digital square or by printing a game card. Flippity actually lets you send out the cards via link or QR code as kids can fill in their cards digitally. Then when it's over, have them share their screen and review their answers to see who wins!

Amongst some of the other Flippity.net tools is the classic Jeopardy-like game show. A great way to review information for a unit or novel study, you can fill in the back-end answers using a Google spreadsheet and then share your screen with the game board. Students can play individually, or you could pre-assign teams and then send them to breakout rooms to discuss what they think the answer might be.

You remember the "telephone game" or maybe the game "one-word stories"? This is a similar concept where you start the story and have random students add the next line. A story could start with "Once upon a time...." and then you could select the student by unmuting their mic. By doing it randomly rather than in a specific order, you cause all students to be thinking of a response rather than just waiting until their turn. Mix it up with story recaps or historical fiction to see what they come up with.

For those of us that are not budding artists or struggle with drawing with a mouse, I've long been a fan of Autodraw.com. This web-based application has you draw out a shape as close as you can while the AI guesses what it might be. When you see an object that is close to what you are drawing, you select it to place into your drawing. One fun thing I've tried with this is having students draw their favorite movie scene and then putting the picture on a Padlet wall for everyone to guess the movie.

Flashcards can be pretty boring, especially if you are just using them yourself to practice terms, definitions or maybe even a foreign language. Now that we are remote, it becomes even more challenging to find a partner or group to practice with. Using tools like Fishbowl and Quizlet Live can be leveraged to create fun and energizing ways to have kids practice their terms either as a group or in breakout rooms.

One of the hidden nuggets I always love showing teachers is the Polygraph feature contained within the free, web-based math app called Desmos. This tool acts creates a "Guess who? " like game where 2 students are randomly paired up via a join code you share with them on the screen. You create the cards and student A choses one of the items to be their "mystery item". As you can upload any image, the mystery item could be a person, place, thing, word, math problem, etc. Then student B has to ask yes or no questions and decide which items they can eliminate. Polygraph creates a private loop between the students and the teacher can see the questions and guesses that each student is making to better check for understanding.

Additional Resources:

Want more of these kinds of resources? Check out my new course The Remote Learning Coach! Most of these are mentioned in my module centered around student engagement. The course also includes modules around assessment, collaboration, and more!

While most of these activities I either have done with students or teachers (both live and online), there are hundreds of other resources and games out there available to use freely with your students as you teach remotely. Here are two that I'll give shout-outs to as I found them while writing this post:

TCEA Tech Notes - Zoom Games - This post came out while I was writing this post and contains many other games like the scavenger hunt and Pictionary that teachers could benefit from using.

Quarantine Games - This google doc compiled by @ihartnia has pages of board games, card games, and other things that you can play online.

I hope you enjoy my list and please feel free to share any other games or ideas you have in the comments below and give my new course a look. Here's an infographic with all 25 of the strategies (ironically) on a Zoom call. 🙂

Stay safe and stay sane!

Educator, global speaker and consultant, event organizer, educational strategist and CEO of HookerTech LLC, Future Ready Schools Faculty member, author of the 6-book series "Mobile Learning Mindset", "Ready Set FAIL!" and his latest book "Learning Evolution: The New Era of AI in the Classroom." He also is the host of the ISTE Learning Unleashed podcast and the UnDisruptED podcast by Future Ready schools. He is most importantly, a husband and father of 3.

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

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Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of

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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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With so many students now learning in a mostly-virtual environment, one of the most impactful human elements of classroom learning that has suffered is collaboration. Throughout the initial phases of quarantine, the 4Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking) as a whole took a bit of a hit, as many teachers found themselves working hard to adjust their teaching to get content out to students in a new and changing environment. Now that digital-first learning is the new normal, we have seen more and more examples of teachers who are harnessing the wonderful power of digital tools to bring those critical skills back into play!

Agnes Palucki, a Digital Learning Coach from Illinois, recently Tweeted a picture of a class of fourth graders with whom she had just collaborated to complete a Breakout EDU Digital game via Google Hangouts (she's also done this activity with second graders and had great success). Since we've seen several social media posts and replied to a few emails from teachers wondering how to do something just like this, we reached out to Agnes to see how she made the magic happen.

First, Agnes and her colleagues love Breakout EDU kit games, and so when the school closure occurred, she and her team began brainstorming ways they could continue to engage students in meaningful, collaborative ways. "What else can we do?" was a question that prompted the team to try running a digital game remotely. She shared the following tips for how she learned to make the experience a successful one:

1. Decide on a game: What's the learning objective? Agnes talked with her collaborating teachers and then searched the Breakout EDU Platform for games that met their criteria. In the end, they settled on a game themed around field day (which they happened to be missing that week).

2. Have two screens if possible: Agnes discovered the activity worked best when she joined the Hangout as "herself" in one, and then shared the game in the other so that she could see and hear students as they interacted.

3. Send the link in the virtual chat so students can play along: Agnes said that the students liked being able to see the puzzles and clues on their own screens while the game was happening; she coached them ahead of time on how to keep the game and the chat running in separate tabs.

4. Explain how a Breakout EDU Digital Game works: For students who had never played a Breakout EDU Digital game before, it was important that they understood what would happen when a lock was selected (ex. that it turned green when the combinations were correct, and so on).
*One helpful resource to share with students on this topic can be found by visiting brkedu.com/HowToPlay

5. Let students participate: Agnes didn't keep her students muted during the game; instead, she laid out the rules ahead of time for how they should get her attention when they had an idea to share or when they needed help. For example, she told them not to shout out answers, but rather to raise their hands when they had something they wanted to ask or tell. This empowered learners with the sense that "they were helping me" when it came time for her to enter the combinations on behalf of the class.

6. Encourage students to share their thinking: Just like in a physical classroom, students were empowered by the discoveries and ideas of their peers. When they were able to see, hear, and understand how a classmate solved a puzzle, they felt more successful to try that same tactic on their own in the next puzzle or game.

We have put together a quick, clickable guide (linked above and downloadable here) to share how easy it is to play a digital game with students! Please be sure to share your tips, tricks, and successes by commenting below, sharing via social media, or emailing us at info@breakoutedu.com.

Hang in there, and keep up the amazing work!

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Playing Breakout EDU Digital Games on Zoom/Google Meet - Breakout EDU

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With so many students now learning in a mostly-virtual environment, one of the most impactful human elements of classroom learning that has suffered is collaboration. Throughout the initial phases of quarantine, the 4Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking) as a whole took a bit of a hit, as many teachers found themselves working hard to adjust their teaching to get content out to students in a new and changing environment.

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Non Tech At Home Learning Menus from Lalilo

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Non Tech At Home Learning Menus from Lalilo

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Virtual Field Trips to the Maine Wildlife Park

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Virtual Field Trips to the Maine Wildlife Park

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Maine Wildlife Park Virtual Field Trips
Join us during the month of May for a series of virtual field trips to the Maine Wildlife Park!
These special presentations are ideal for elementary and middle school students, but students of all ages can enjoy. At this time all live sessions are full. Recordings of each presentation will be available to all for future viewing after they're completed.

Animals' Amazing Adaptations - May 5, 2020 11:00am

Maine wildlife exh ibit an amazing variety of physical and behavioral characteristics that enable them to survive and do their jobs within their environment. We will learn about Maine's native wildlife and the amazing adaptations that help them survive. We will take a look at how animals adapt to different habitats and examine things like why moose and deer grow antlers, or how aquatic animals adapt to stay in the water so long, how camouflage benefits animals in different habitats, and more! We will look at furs, skulls, and maybe even see a live animal.

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Maine's Busy Beavers - May 7, 2020 11:00am

Beavers are one of few animals that can create their own habitat, or place to live. There are many in Maine, and they have an interesting life cycle. Using natural ar tifacts, skins, skulls and beaver 'chew', we will explore the world of the beaver, and identify its many physical adaptations. We may even get to see a live beaver.
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Carni vores of Maine - May 12, 2020 11:00am

Lynx, mink, bobcat, loons, eagles, and more are all at the top of their food chains and integral parts of the ecology. What key roles do these top predators play in a food chain. We will take a look at the adaptations of top predators using furs, feathers, and skulls to learn about a variety of predators and their important roles in the ecosystem. We may even get to see a live animal.

Maine's Native Turtles - May 14, 2020 11:00am

Turtles are an ancient group of reptiles and we have many species in Maine. We will take a look at the adaptations of both land and aquatic turtles native to Maine, and learn about their natural history, the habitats in which they are found, and some of the threats facing turtles (many are endangered or threatened). With the help of our turtle ambassadors and some natural turtle artifacts we will exam ine the amazing adaptations of turtles.

Maine's Small Mamma ls - May 19, 2020 11:00am

Many of Maine's mammals are small and have different ways of living. Some live in trees like squirrels, and others around water like otters, muskrats, and mink. Some are herbivores while others are carnivores, but each has their own unique adaptations. We will take a look at a few of these species you can find in Maine using furs, skulls, and other natural artifacts, and maybe even get a chance to see a live animal.

Bird Adaptations - May 21, 2020 11:00am

Birds can live in many different habitats and climates, and eat a wide variety of food depending on their style of beak. Using mounted specimens of different bird species, we'll look at the many different adaptations birds exhibit to survive in their part icular habitats. We will look at color, beak shape, feet, feathers, and diet. We will also learn what characteristics define birds and what feature is unique to birds that no other living creature has. We may even get a chance to see a live bird.

Amazing Animal Adaptations - May 26, 2020 11:00am

Maine wildlife exhibits an amazing variety of physical and behavioral characteristics that enable them to survive and do their jobs within their environment. We will learn about Maine's native wildlife and the amazing adaptations that help them survive. We will take a look at how animals adapt to different habitats, and examine things like why moose and deer grow antlers, or how aquatic animals adapt to stay in the water so long, how camouflage benefits animals in different habitats, and more! We will look at furs, skulls, and maybe even see a live animal.

Maine's Raptors - May 28, 2020 11:00am

Learn the unique adaptations of raptors, birds of prey, such as owls, eagles, hawks, vultures, and falcons. We will learn how these carnivores get food, and look at how they are similar but different due to the habitats in which they live, and when they are most active. We will even t ake a look at owl pellets and how they provide clues of the habitat they hunt. We may even get to see a live bird.

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Join us during the month of May for a series of virtual field trips to the Maine Wildlife Park! These special presentations are ideal for elementary and middle school students, but students of all ages can enjoy. At this time all live sessions are full.

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School & District -Subscriptions | Seesaw

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Meaningful learning can happen anywhere. Set up a secure remote/distance learning environment when emergencies like COVID-19 cause school closure. We're here to help with resources to support effective remote/distance learning experiences for students, teachers, and families.

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Our connections to our class, context, and community are what make us impactful as educators. James Comer (1995) puts it well: "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." As former teachers, we know that keeping those relationships and connections through distance learning and new challenges can be difficult.

This toolkit is designed to help you connect to student choice, your curriculum and content, and your communities in this uncertain time. Newsela is built to help educators connect students to the world around them and we feel now more than ever our charge to Unlock the Written Word for Everyone means helping to connect.

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Our connections to our class, context, and community are what make us impactful as educators. James Comer (1995) puts it well: "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." As former teachers, we know that keeping those relationships and connections through distance learning and new challenges can be difficult.

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Here is the training presentation that Susie has put together to take you through getting started with Google Classroom.

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How to join a Zoom Meeting on iPad and share screen

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In recent weeks, COVID-19 has dramatically impacted schools, teachers, students and families around the globe. With schools experiencing closures, thousands of educators have been working tirelessly to support their students and keep them reading and learning at home.

Epic wants to help. We are offering FREE worldwide Remote Student Access to Epic through the end of the school year (June 30th, 2020), by teacher invitation - no credit card required. Families only need an invitation from their teacher to get started. Students will have anywhere, anytime access to the full Epic library on all devices (including web browsers, the iOS app and the Android app), and teachers can stay connected to their students by assigning books and collections and tracking reading activity and progress.

Sounds great! Can anyone get Remote Student Access??
Remote Student Access is only available by invitation from an educator. Individual families are not eligible for this offer if a child's teacher is not using Epic. The good news? Epic is always free to educators and educators can sign up for their free account in a matter of minutes by following the instructions below.

Educators must send each students' parent or guardian an invitation from the student roster page.

HOW TO GET STARTED
If you're already an active teacher on Epic:
Invite your families to sign up for free Remote Student Access from the roster page. Students should not use your class code to log in as they normally would. [ Please follow these detailed instructions.]

If you are a teacher not currently active on Epic, but already have an Epic account:
1. Sign in to your account. If you have forgotten your password, you can request a reset to be sent to the email associated with the account

2. Set up your student roster. It's easy to add your students via Google Classroom, or one by one. (See Instructions for adding students to your roster here.)

3. Invite your families from the student roster page. [ Detailed instructions here]

If you are a teacher new to Epic:
1. Open your account at https://www.getepic.com/educators . It's 100% free; all you need is a valid educator email

2. Sign in to your account

3. Set up your student roster. It's easy to add your students via Google Classroom, or one by one. (See Instructions for adding students to your roster here.)

4. Invite your families from the student roster page. [ Detailed instructions here]

What to expect after inviting student families:
1. Parents will receive an email, set up their account, and request permission to link to your classroom. You can track each student's access status and approve family linking requests on your roster page

2. You will receive an email confirmation once the family account is successfully linked

What does the Remote Student Access Experience include? Students can log on via a web browser on a desktop or laptop computer, or the Epic app on iOS or Android. The apps are free to download from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

Students can access the full library of over 40,000 e-books, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes that is available to them in class. (Materials in Spanish, French and Chinese, too!)

Educators can assign a book, or collections of books, to individual students or to the entire class. Educators can monitor their students' reading activity via their student reading logs.
Additional resources and step-by-step instructions:
Do you know any educators who may be interested? Free access to Epic through June 30th, 2020 is available for all educators and their students. Feel free to share this blog post with them, or point them directly to https://www.getepic.com/educators .

As we navigate this situation together, we know that reading and consistency for students is incredibly important. As always, we're here for our community of educators. Join the conversation on our Facebook Educator page or via Twitter @epic4kids.

Be well and keep reading!
The Epic Team

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The Importance of Bedtime Reading for Kids

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In response to widespread school closures associated with COVID-19, Epic is offering FREE worldwide Remote Student Access through the end of the school year (June 30th, 2020), by teacher invitation - no credit card required. Families only need an invitation from their teacher to get started.

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A number of schools around the world have temporarily closed because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and will need to rely on remote technology to continue learning.

Luckily, there are lots of edtech tools out there to help with that, and with Book Creator online you can bring creativity to your homes (not just your classrooms!).

So, we're supporting you in numerous ways.

Firstly, we'd like to offer everyone the ability to collaborate together on books in real-time. This is a premium feature that is usually only available with a paid subscription, but we're offering 90 days free use of this tool, to help keep students and teachers connected.
Note: the 90 day collaboration trial offer ended on 18th August 2021, and is now back to the original 14 day trial.
Free collaboration upgrade

To claim your free collaboration upgrade, you'll need to:

1. Sign into your Book Creator account. If you don't have an account yet, create one and we'll give you 1 library and 40 books for free.

2. Start your collaboration trial on your account - you'll automatically get 90 days free.

How Book Creator can help with remote learning

NEW: We now have a dedicated Remote Learning hub.

See bookcreator.com./remote-learning

Read this Guidance for home learning - how teachers can help parents to get their children signed into Book Creator at home.
Read the guidance
Daily webinars - join Jon Smith for daily webinars on using Book Creator for home learning, and simple getting started with Book Creator sessions. These are informal - drop in and ask Jon anything.

Use the calendar below to find a time that suits you. Make sure to register using the link for each event.

If you're unable to make any of the dates above, you can view a recording of the Home Learning with Book Creator webinar from 26th March.

Book Creator can be used in any subject, with any grade level. So you should focus on assignments that allow the student to get creative and demonstrate their understanding. This could literally be anything you've been working on in class!

If you're looking for a range of lesson ideas - start with our Resources hub:

You may also want to look at example books that other students have made:

Focus on taking current projects that students have been working on and getting them to create a book - a digital version of what they may have done in an exercise book had they been in school! This could be a journal, a report, a story retell, poetry - you name it. Have students write but also record their voice, add video and images to their books and be as creative as possible.

Work collaboratively

Take advantage of your free real-time collaboration upgrade by setting tasks that involve students working on the same book at the same time. This could be a class book that you've been working on already, or if you're looking for ideas, why not compose a daily journal so students can keep tabs on what everyone else has been doing each day? Or you could take part in the latest #TWIMA ( The World is My Audience) project with Jon Smith. The current project is 'Traditions', and details can be found in this Google Doc.

Keep good communication

Student books will appear directly on your bookshelf, so there's no need for students to go through a complicated turn-in procedure. (Tip: you can decide whether or not students can see each other's books).

Communicate with your students by recording audio hotspots with feedback on their work to correct and guide them.

Boost motivation by sharing work

As kids work on their books from the comfort of their home, help them feel even more motivated and engaged by sharing their books beyond your library. You can publish individual books (or even a whole library) online with ease - showcase great work on your class blog or school website, on social media and beyond. Students will be even more engaged if they know the books they are creating will be seen by a wide audience. Everyone loves to be a published author!

Share your ideas

Do you have any other ideas for activities or lesson plans that work well for remote learners? Please share your ideas in the comments below so the whole community can benefit. Thanks!

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Support for schools affected by Coronavirus - Book Creator app

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A number of schools around the world have temporarily closed because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and will need to rely on remote technology to continue learning. Luckily, there are lots of edtech tools out there to help with that, and with Book Creator online you can bring creativity to your homes (not just your classrooms!).

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How to Use Zoom with an iPad or iPhone for Client Meetings

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eSpark is here to help you with supporting your students outside of the classroom. Bookmark this page since we'll be updating this as we develop more ways to support you.
This is how you can help your students at home:

Get the right info to parents by using this parent letter student log in info [link]

Watch one of our recent distance learning webinars [link]

Learn how to use the Activity Report to track students' progress [link]

Take the student tour to get re-acquainted with eSpark [link]

Use assignments to send out specific quests to groups of students [link]

Hand out high fives virtually with this social media graphic [link]

Teacher blog highlighting 4 great teacher tips for distance learning [link]

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For teachers: How can I support my students at home?

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eSpark is here to help you with supporting your students outside of the classroom. Bookmark this page since we'll be updating this as we develop more ways to support you.

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Google Hangouts Meet 2020 - Tutorial #1 - Creating & Joining a Meeting

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How to Restore from Google Backup and Sync