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Great resource for updated information about dogs in schools, data to prove the positive results, personal stories of schools and their approach

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According to research carried out at the Yale Innovative Interactions Lab, there is something distinctive about dogs that makes them so companionable. Unlike cats, parakeets or snakes, dogs have co-evolved with humans for about 30,000 years, prompting them to develop skills that make them adept at understanding social and emotional cues from humans. Dogs make eye contact, for example. They follow where a person points. When frightened, they seek comfort from humans. And according to Yale researcher Molly Crossman, who studies how humans interact with dogs, "there is encouraging, preliminary evidence that dogs might reduce stress."

Hospitals, nursing homes, courthouses, colleges and universities, and other groups have pounced on such studies and brought in dogs and other animals as a way to reduce stress among their populations. But there's one large cohort that's usually excluded from the canine influx: children in public schools. With the exception of service and police dogs, and the occasional visit from a designated " reading " dog, ordinary dogs are largely absent from public schools. Many towns pass ordinances that forbid dogs from even stepping on school property, let alone taking up residence in the guidance department or principal's office. Some school districts enact no-dogs rules to protect children who are afraid of or allergic to the animals and to keep school property free of dog waste.

But a new program started in New York City that incorporates dogs in ordinary classrooms may be challenging the no-dogs rule. The Comfort Dog Pilot Program, launched in fall 2016 by the Department of Education, pairs select dogs from the North Shore Animal League America with participating New York City schools. Begun as a pilot with seven schools, the program expanded at the start of the 2017 school year to include a total of 42 varied elementary, middle and high schools. Chancellor of City Schools Carmen Fariña gave the go-ahead for the idea when a fifth-grade boy from Queens made the suggestion. In addition to offering ordinary comfort, some of the dogs are deployed in teachers' lesson plans to encourage empathy, cooperation and decision-making as part of the Mutt-i-grees Curriculum.

"It's an innovative approach to social-emotional learning," said Miranda Barbot, a spokeswoman at the NYC education department who is familiar with the program.

Nina is a 9-month-old boxer/beagle mix with a toffee-colored coat and a distinctive underbite. Rescued from a kill shelter in Virginia, she made her way up to New York and now trots off most days to Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn with Dave Robinson, an assistant principal there who adopted her. Robinson and school principal Ari A. Hoogenboom applied to the Comfort Dog Program when they heard how well it had worked in elementary and middle schools around the city. "Our attitude was, if something's good, let's do it here," Hoogenboom said. Abraham Lincoln High School educates some 2,000 kids from various backgrounds and is the only large high school in New York with a comfort dog.

Hoogenboom recognized that some teenagers might not want to interact with Nina, either because of allergies, fear or a cultural inhibition. Before bringing in Nina, he sent all parents a "positive option letter" that they had to sign before their child could interact with her. Having a dog in school requires sensitivity to faculty, too, Hoogenboom said.

Nina gets to work early. In the morning, she holds office hours (with Robinson) so that students can drop in for impromptu social visits. After lunch, she spends two hours in counseling sessions with small groups of kids, where she "does the basic stuff," Robinson said: wags her tail, looks at students with her doe-like eyes and exudes indiscriminate affection. Hoogenboom and Robinson said she has had a positive effect on both students and teachers. Attendance at counseling sessions has picked up because kids want to see Nina, and her presence in the meetings gets students to talk more openly. She has helped kids in crisis, offering elemental comfort that humans could not provide. And she sets a welcoming tone at school that has proved helpful in lowering tension.

"We've had instances with students who were agitated and about to get in a conflict, and she helped bring them down from 10 to 0," Robinson said.

Sindler has observed similar reactions to his dogs, not only with the children at Burgundy but also among students at a year-round school in Baltimore where he used to work. Children there often came from challenging backgrounds: Many lived in poverty, or had to travel through dangerous neighborhoods to get to school, or shared a too-crowded home. When these emotionally needy children encountered Luke, Sindler's benevolent Labrador, they relaxed and were more prepared to learn. The dog seemed to fill unmet emotional needs. For children whose primary experiences with dogs had been limited to frightening confrontations involving growling and teeth, the interactions with Luke also softened their perception of animals. For Sindler, including Luke was all part of an effort to create a safe environment where learning could flourish.

Crossman from Yale is careful to point out that public enthusiasm for the efficacy of dogs as support animals far outstrips actual evidence that canines do in fact ease anxiety. Dog-crazy humans are so hopelessly partial to the animals that they might perceive emotional benefits that do not exist. Further research is needed, she said. But many students and teachers swear by them. If by some decree all dogs were forced to leave campus, something special would be lost, said Max, an eighth-grader at Burgundy who is especially happy when the math teacher's dog lopes around during exams.

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Making Comfort Dogs an Everyday Part of School

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According to research carried out at the Yale Innovative Interactions Lab, there is something distinctive about dogs that makes them so companionable. Unlike cats, parakeets or snakes, dogs have co-evolved with humans for about 30,000 years, prompting them to develop skills that make them adept at understanding social and emotional cues from humans.

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When I do presentations and workshops with teachers all over the United States and beyond, hands go up all over the room when I ask if they're familiar with Kahoot!.

It launched in August 2013 and has taken off like a rocket. In May 2017, it had 50 million monthly active users. In March 2017, it eclipsed 1 billion cumulative participating players.

There's a good chance that you've played a Kahoot! game, where teachers ask students questions on a projector or big screen and students respond using devices at their seats. There's a leaderboard and music, and the quicker you answer, the more points you earn.

We're very familiar with the quiz feature. It's the traditional multiple-choice, four-answer option that almost everyone uses.

But what about other features? There are several that go under the radar for teachers that are really useful.

In the video below, I'll show you five things you might not know about Kahoot!.

Skip forward to the times below to see any idea in particular:

1:00 - Play well-made curriculum-aligned games created by Kahoot!

2:20 - Create Jumble games (put answers in order instead of choosing an answer)

4:19 - Identify "naughty nicknamers" with the "scarlet screen"

5:49 - Avoid naughty nicknames with the name generator (see graphic below)

7:35 - Duplicate and change existing Kahoot!s to meet your needs
For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail! Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:

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5 things you might not know about Kahoot!

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When I do presentations and workshops with teachers all over the United States and beyond, hands go up all over the room when I ask if they're familiar with Kahoot!. It launched in August 2013 and has taken off like a rocket. In May 2017, it had 50 million monthly active users.

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In this educational animated movie about Science learn about sculptures, inventors, painting, mathematicians, polymath, scientists, Verrocchio, Mona Lisa, geniuses, and engineer.

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Uploaded by Jennifer O'Brien on 2016-10-03.

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Lots of free tutorials, examples, directions & student's can upload/share their artwork!

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Community Wall Project Graffiti Diplomacy- SHARE YOUR GRAFFITI DRAWINGS WITH THE WORLD!

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This website teaches beginners of all ages how to draw authentic graffiti. Start with bubble letters. Print our free graffiti lessons to get started right away. This websit contains drawing letters, book reviews, and free graffiti coloring pages. DRAW GRAFFITI NOW!

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"Caine's Arcade" is worth watching, I want to do this in my art classes. It has become a movement!

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and other ideas to get the most out of Twitter:)

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Listen to an extended version of this post as a podcast:
I hear it all the time: "I have a Twitter account, but I don't really know how to use it."
I understand this thinking completely. Before I signed up to Twitter less than three years ago, I didn't get it AT ALL. I would go to someone's Twitter page-if that's what it was even called-and none of it made sense. It was only slightly easier to read than HTML. I had a vague understanding that a "tweet" was a 140-character post, and some fuzzy memory of Ashton Kutcher doing some kind of charity thing on it a few years back, aaannnd that was pretty much it.

But I kept hearing people say things like, "Twitter is the best professional development I've ever had." In my head I was basically calling BS on that. Because that's what I tend to do when I don't understand things. (It's not my best quality.) So I went ahead and opened an account, and I pretty much did nothing with it for a while. Over time, I picked up a few tips, but it took about six months before I started using it with any regularity.

Now that I've been using Twitter for a few years, I get it. I really do. And I want you to get it now. Because I believe every educator really needs to be on Twitter and be able to use it well. All those Twitter accounts just sitting there, not getting used, are just wasted opportunity.

At the end of this post, you'll find information about my new online course, Twitter for Teachers and Students. It's a 5-module video course I created to help teachers learn how to really use Twitter to its full potential. To learn more about it, click here to jump right down and check it out.

In the meantime, here are some things you could be doing to get the most from Twitter.

6 Ways to Make Better Use of Twitter

1. Find your tribe.

One of the greatest things about Twitter is that it allows you to find like-minded people, no matter where they are in the world. Once you've found them, you can start talking, sharing resources and ideas, and further developing your point of view with the enrichment and support of people who see things through a similar lens. When I was full-time in the classroom, I could count on one hand the number of people I worked with who shared my views on teaching, students, parents, and overall growth as a professional. ONE HAND. I was starved for connection. If I'd had something like Twitter, it would have been so different. I hear stories all the time from people who have made these connections-they experience tremendous growth and satisfaction in their work, regardless of the environment they happen to work in.

How to do it: When you first sign up for Twitter, you're likely to follow people you know, plus a few other well-known accounts that Twitter suggests for you. After that, what do you do? Using the search bar, look for topics that interest you. So if you're a middle school science teacher, you might look for "middle school science." The search results will show you accounts of people who have listed those terms right in their profile-definitely check those people out as possible people to follow. Your results will also show you specific tweets containing those terms: Click over to the profiles of the people who tweeted them, browse their past tweets, and see if they would make a good connection for you. Once you're following these people, you can start interacting with them; that's where the real tribe-building happens.

2. Communicate directly with anyone on Twitter.

As long as someone else has a Twitter account, you can communicate directly with them. That includes people you don't know, celebrities, corporations, whoever. If you place that person's Twitter handle (the thing that starts with an @ symbol), in your tweet, that person will be notified that you mentioned them. If they choose to, they can respond. Now if we're talking about celebrities who have millions of followers, the chance of hearing back from them is slim, but it definitely happens. If we're just talking about an educator who lives across the country, "tweeting at" them is far more likely to get a response, and a real conversation can begin.

How to do it: Just copy the Twitter handle of the person you want to communicate with in your tweet. For example, last week I tweeted out a link to one of my blog posts. Brad Wilson replied back to me, then I replied back to him. This is what I mean about having conversations on Twitter:

Why No One Reads Your Classroom Newsletter https://t.co/HIC32WRMFp #instruction #organization #teachers #edchat

- Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy) April 25, 2016

@dreambition Excellent points - never even thought of that. Was strictly looking at design. Thanks, Brad!

- Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy) April 26, 2016

3. Share the great stuff you find online.

Once you start making connections with people, the next step is to share stuff with each other. In the same way that you share links on Facebook or pin things on Pinterest, you can share links to fantastic content in tweets. And the best part about doing this is that other people, your tribe members, they will share stuff with you, too. This is, I believe, one of the main reasons people equate Twitter with professional development. Pretty much every time I jump on, I end up discovering something in just a few minutes that I never would have come across otherwise, and my professional knowledge is thereby enriched.

How to do it: Well, this is one of the best uses of a tweet. For some people, a tweet is all about making witty commentary about life. But most active Twitter users-especially in education-share quite a few links to online resources right in their tweets. If you're new to Twitter, you might not even recognize them as links, because they look like this: goo.gl/goeKWS. Those are just abbreviations, but they work the same way as the longer ones you're used to. By the way, if you paste a long link into a Tweet, don't worry about the 140-character limit: Twitter will automatically shorten the link for you. Here's an example of me sharing a post from Vicki Davis' site-see the shortened link in there?

2 Simple Ways Improve a Lesson Plan https://t.co/ck1pe6DOgt via @coolcatteacher

- Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy) April 26, 2016

4. Participate in a Twitter chat.

One of the most exciting ways to use Twitter is by participating in a Twitter chat. This is where a group of people "meet" online at a designated date and time and, using the same hashtag, have a group conversation. There are chats for just about every specialty area you can think of-take a look at this comprehensive list of education-related Twitter chats to get an idea.

How to do it: Find a chat you're interested in. Then, at the designated time, search for the chat's hashtag and on the results page you'll see what people are talking about. To add your own contribution, simply add the chat's hashtag to your own tweet and it will be included in the stream. Below is an example from an Early Childhood Educators chat (#ECEchat), held Tuesday nights at 9:30pm EST. The first tweet shown is the fifth question of the chat (marked with Q5), followed by some of the participants' responses (marked with A5). Notice how each tweet includes the #ECEchat hashtag:

RT Q5: Show us how you differentiate for your students! Please include the grade/subject #ECEchat pic.twitter.com/atakOKVm4J

- ECEchat (@ECEchat) April 27, 2016

A5. K Literacy stations are differentiated by color folder in a draw system. Ss match their folder to the folder in the drawer. #ecechat

- Danielle Brown, NBCT (@TeachDB17) April 27, 2016

A5: I'll record directions for lower groups, video myself playing the game, QR hunts for higher groups, #ECEchat

- Keri Lewis (@KinderKeri) April 27, 2016

A5 #ECECHATA5 3rd grade- Read alouds, think-pair-share, choice boards, anchor charts. #ECECHAT pic.twitter.com/4dPHx5ZhlJ

- Grace Salguero (@gracesalguero) April 27, 2016

5. Do research.

I am now in the habit of using Twitter as part of my regular routine when I'm researching a topic. First I look on Google and Google Scholar, then I check Twitter. Far more than just a communication tool, Twitter is a powerful search engine in its own right. I can search for any topic I want, then find tweets about it, which lead me to other resources and experts that can tell me more.

How to do it: Just use the search bar in the top right corner of the Twitter platform in the same way you'd do a Google search. When your results come up, you'll have the option to look at the top tweets about that topic, the most recent tweets ("Live"), and specific accounts that mention that topic. I did a quick search of the term "flipped learning" and found thousands of results, like this one, which links directly to an article where I can learn more:

Blended Learning vs Flipped Learning: Can You Tell The Difference? #eLearning #edutech https://t.co/KcNJAEGlgr

- Julian Davis  (@JulianDavis71) April 17, 2016

6. Communicate with students and parents.

If your students or their parents are on Twitter, you can use a classroom Twitter account to alert them to upcoming assignments, send reminders about important events or deadlines, provide links to interesting articles or other online resources, or share fascinating videos and images. You can also use a class Twitter account to show others-parents and the community, or the education world at large-the great things you're doing in your class.

How to do it: Create a Twitter account for your class that is different from the one you'd use for yourself; this requires a different email address to link to the account. Then start tweeting! You can compose the tweets yourself, or better yet, have students do it. Here's an example of a tweet from a 4th grade class Twitter account, which appears to be managed mostly by students:

Today we used skype to connect with our friend who moved back to France!!

- Ms. McElwee's Class (@msmcelweesclass) February 2, 2016

Go On, Turn the Corner

I promise you this: If you make the effort to try some of the things I've listed here and just stick with it for a while, you will turn the corner with Twitter. I never thought I would get the hang of it, but now it's as much a part of my day as checking email and Facebook. People who work in other fields can probably get away with avoiding Twitter, but for you, an educator? It's part of an essential 21st century toolkit. Make this the year you really start using it. ♦

Ready to Take the Next Step?

To help teachers learn how to make the most of Twitter, I have created an online course called Twitter for Teachers and Students on a brand-new learning platform for educators called Blend. In less than 90 minutes, you can learn everything I describe above and so much more. Through a series of self-paced video tutorials and a detailed, printable set of notes you can refer to any time, I show you step-by-step how to:

understand "Twitter language," including hashtags

find people to follow who share your interests

communicate directly with anyone on Twitter

participate in a Twitter chat

find Twitter chats you'll care about

share images and videos

organize content with Twitter lists

do research on Twitter

set up and use a classroom Twitter account

Learn More

Keep in touch.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to my members-only library of free downloadable resources, including my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, which has helped thousands of teachers spend less time grading!

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So you have a Twitter account. Now what?

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Listen to an extended version of this post as a podcast: I hear it all the time: "I have a Twitter account, but I don't really know how to use it." I understand this thinking completely. Before I signed up to Twitter less than three years ago, I didn't get it AT ALL.

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this looks really well explained:)

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Google Forms is the best thing since sliced bread.

1. Create a Form

There are multiple ways to create a Google Form. One is to go to Google Drive and click on the New button and create a new Form. If you go to forms.google.com you can see a filtered list of your Forms as well as template options for creating a new form.

forms.google.com/create

2. Title the Form

3. Type Your Question

4. Click on Send to Share

5. View Responses

After distributing the Form you would like to see what the responses were. You need to be in the Edit screen of the Google Form to view the responses. Go to either forms.google.com or Google Drive and locate the Form.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018

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Create a Google Form Google Forms is the best thing since sliced bread. 1. Create a Form There are multiple ways to create a Google Form. One is to go to Google Drive and click on the New button and create a new Form. If you go to forms.google.com you can see a filtered list ...