Edulastic Training, CAASPP Support, Night Zookeeper, Clever at Home, & Robots and Jobs - Wk 27

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 27 (March 11 – March 15, 2019)

Thursday Giggles:                What do you call an old snowman?

Water.

If you ever try out any ideas I suggest in my blog, please let me know! I would love to showcase your awesome discoveries here.
Others would love to learn from your experiences. And, you’ll inspire others to try something new.
Email me here:melissaculver@cusd.com. Check out my website: www.melissaculver.com.

PD Dates to save on your calendar:

       Wednesday, March 27 – Edulastic @ Mountain View from 2:30 – 3:30 REGISTRATION LINK
       Wednesday, May 15 – Chrome Add-ons & Extensions @ Mountain View from 2:30 – 3:30

Teaching Videos for CAASPP. If you need support teaching your students how to use the CAASPP website (for students), feel free to check out this site. There are a host of videos that are designed to help your students navigate the various tools in the online testing portal. And, if you need help teaching your EL students how to use these tools, you might find content in their language here—a video that is. And for our SpEd teachers, there may be several videos in there to help your students. They could benefit from the repetition. LINK HERE

Image Credits: link here.

Night Zookeeper.  Last week I posted about an online learning tool by the name of Night Zookeeper.  This safe, identity-protected, online sharing space lets kids share their writing with other children.  You, the teacher, determine the scope of that impact.  Whole-class, another classroom on your campus, a class in India, China, or Australia?  How much of your student writing gets shared…right now?  And how?  How often does it sit in a journal in their desk and no one sees their creativity?  Are they motivated to write?  Here is one tool that may transform what your students think about writing.  There’s a 2-month promo code in there.  Email Paul.  Give him my name.  He’ll extend your free trial for you.  Want more info?  BLOG LINK HERE.

Image credits: Melissa Culver.

Clever Help at Home. Do your students lament that they cannot access some Clever tools at home? They are correct. However, there is a strategy that will remedy that hiccup for them. Feel free to add this video to your website or share with parents. LINK HERE.



Will robots take your job? As we all see the increasing need to share technology with our students, here is one tool that might reinforce the importance of understanding high-level tech standards. How many jobs will be replaced by robots in the future? Labor Bureau Statistics report that 4.2 million jobs will require computational thinking, information technology, or coding in the year 2020 (Montoya, 2017). Robots continue to get cheaper and cheaper. Technology will expand the skills they can do. And more jobs will be outdated as each year advances. What jobs are disappearing? Head to THIS LINK HERE to check out what jobs are outdated at an increasing clip. 

Image credits: link here.

Reference: 
Montoya, A. (2017). Computer science for all: Opportunities through a diverse teaching workforce. Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, 29, 47-62.

Stay curious,
Melissa Culver