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Hey yall!
I left out two awesome resources due to time.....
Virtual Math Manipulatives and Flippity Check it out!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jadIg9nk64U9gWtj4QEbd-AEzVtCXQeH-y44LPXlF3M/present?slide=id.g27b693dca5_0_261

https://www.flippity.net/

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This would make teaching timelines so much easier! (A big standard for 2nd.)

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It's easy to get stuck in a rut. As cyclical as education is, it's almost impossible not to.

We do the same activities year in and year out - even if we're constantly trying to reinvent our classes. It happens to the best of us.

Twitter is a great way to get unstuck. It also helps others to get unstuck. Kudos to Jane Highley for that.

She recently posted a question that caught my attention:

How can designing a timeline be a rigorous activity?

Higher-order thinking and Webb's Depth of Knowledge have been top of mind for me. (I spent some time recently with Alice Keeler, my co-author for Ditch That Homework. Spend more than 15 minutes with her and you'll hear her say "DoK". And that's a good thing.)

Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge: Depth of Knowledge (DoK) categorizes tasks according to the complexity of thinking required to successfully complete them. (via Edutopia)

Bloom's Taxonomy: The go-to source for higher-order thinking for decades. The original framework consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. It was revised and improved in 2001. (via Vanderbilt Center for Teaching)

Timelines. Poster projects. Brochures.

Any traditional activity can be put through the DOK/higher-order thinking process. Take an old, tired activity and put a deeper spin on it.

Here were some suggestions I gave Jane for her students' timelines:

1. Compare timeline with another from history (or with present times). Compare/contrast kicks the Depth of Knowledge up to DoK level 2: Skills and concepts. Some ways to compare/contrast:

How does this timeline compare to a civilization/event/period in another part of history?

How does this compare to present times/today?

2. Identify problems and give advice to people of that time. Giving advice kicks the DoK up to level 3: Strategic thinking. Some questions to ask/answer:

What was a key mistake/error and how could it have been fixed?

What was a general/overall problem and what could have improved it?

How could people have lived differently to make their lives better?

How could a leader have changed his/her leadership style or decisions to have a better outcome in history?

3. Create a new ending. This also kicks the DoK up to level 3: Strategic thinking. This is like putting a fork in your timeline. There's the way it happened and the way it could have happened. Ways this could be done:

Identify a turning point in the timeline. Determine how it could have been improved and what the outcome could have been.

Go into the future. Take a timeline that goes to today and predict the future based on what you know.

Swap characters. For the timeline or events of a life you're studying, pick a different person to lead or live through those events. How would that person have responded differently?

These could be done with Choose Your Own Adventure stories with Google Slides or Forms! See #8 in this post for ideas.
4. Categorize events. Tagging events on a timeline can help students make sense of them and what the timeline says as a whole. It kicks the DoK up to level 2: Skills and concepts. A deeper explanation of why they're categorized the way they are takes it up to level 3: Strategic thinking.

Some ways to categorize items on a timeline:

A simple good/bad (or very good/good/bad/very bad) or helpful/harmful

Grouping the items on the timeline into categories and tagging each based on those categories created by the student

How it impacted society

How expensive it was

How important it was

5. Identify common themes. What does the timeline say as a whole? This kicks the DoK up to level 2: Skills and concepts. Explanation and justification of those themes can bring it up to DoK level 3: Strategic thinking.

The themes could be added above or below the timeline. Think of them as a headline or a title. A subheadline or secondary title could be added to give further explanation, like a secondary title better explains a vague title of a book.
Several tools can help you create timelines, like:

Google Drawings: It's simple. It's part of the G Suite apps for education. You can save your product as an image file. I made the above infographic with Google Drawings.

Sutori: Sutori lets students create and share visual stories collaboratively. It was formerly HSTRY.co, which was focused on social studies. Now it's been rebranded so it's inclusive to all subject areas.

Timetoast: From the site: Timetoast timelines are a beautiful way to share the past, or even the future. Creating takes minutes. It's as simple as can be!"

ReadWriteThink Timeline: This tool walks you through creating a timeline by date, time or event, step by step with text and images.

[reminder]How else can we kick up the thinking in a timeline activity? What other advice do you have for Jane? What other tools can we use?[/reminder] For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail! Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:
[getnoticed-event-table scope="upcoming" max="15″ expanding="false"]

Sign up for Tech to Learn online course! Just $49

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Deeper thinking with timeline projects - Ditch That Textbook

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It's easy to get stuck in a rut. As cyclical as education is, it's almost impossible not to. We do the same activities year in and year out - even if we're constantly trying to reinvent our classes. It happens to the best of us. Twitter is a great way to get unstuck.

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I've checked out Google Drawings before but I like this idea!

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Comic Strips and Story Boards for Beginning, Middle, End, and Sequencing.

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Liked the customiable desktop organizer wallpapers. Liked the one deep question option. 

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Liked the customiable desktop organizer wallpapers. Liked the one deep question option. 

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I would like to learn more about using maps digitally to teach social studies. Will also help when introducing a new story.

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I would like to learn more about using maps digitally to teach social studies. Will also help when introducing a new story.

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I want to reinvent my course curriculum to be exciting and innovative!  These ideas are great!

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I want to check out and learn how to use Flipgrid.

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I want to check out and learn how to use Flipgrid.

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Sharing this link to a digital choice board created in Google Slides using icons from The Noun Project
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Pw5w9cHpxx7z4YYq39mh7SkaJFCaOAQ7Nw_RbpCdUdM/copy

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Desktop Organizers are on my Pinterest board as a project I planned to do soon! Thanks!

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Free Customizable Desktop Organizer Wallpapers Chalkboard Template.

This is a different type of template. This time I'm sharing customizable desktop organizer wallpapers.

If you have a lot of shortcuts, files and apps in your desktop, these wallpapers are a lifesaver! You can place the icons inside each category so they are easy to find.

I have included a month calendar on each slide and added some stickers related to the seasons.

If you are reading from the south hemisphere, simply change the stickers to adapt them to the seasons there.

Everything is 100% customizable, you are free to change the background, fonts, titles, colors and even add your own stickers. Once you are done editing, download each slide as JPG for Google Slides or save the whole deck as JPG if you are working in PowerPoint, and use the images as wallpapers.

In order to fit your screen resolution, you'll have to check your laptop or desktop configuration and change the values on Page Setup according to it. This template is set to 3240 x 2160 px.

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Customizable Desktop Organizer Chalkboard Wallpapers or Warm-up Slides. - SlidesMania

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This is a different type of template. This time I'm sharing customizable desktop organizer wallpapers. If you have a lot of shortcuts, files and apps in your desktop, these wallpapers are a lifesaver! You can place the icons inside each category so they are easy to find.

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Kindergarten Math!! Love this!!

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In kindergarten the parents are going to be guiding the student through the first month of school. I love that the themes make the slides interesting to students and I can make everything user friendly for first time kindergarten parents.

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I love the "Digital Notebook"  theme. Before "Virtual Learning" last March, I did "UNPLUG" reading time daily (students read their own free-choice books for at least 10/15 minutes per day), and using Google Docs, the students' and I would "journal" back and forth about what they were reading. I think this would be a great alternative to make it more "visually appealing" than a plain Google Doc

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Mrs. Golightly's Disney Virtual Class Trip

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My first Bitmoji classroom, but wanting to add more hyperlinks and interaction with it