Follow That Blogger, Standards & Frameworks, Tinkercad and Google Classroom, and Coding - Wk 32

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 32 (April 22 – April 26, 2019)

Thursday Giggles:                What sound do porcupines make when they hug?

Ouch!

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, May 15 – Chrome Add-ons & Extensions @ Mountain View from 2:30 – 3:30
I will attend the Ready Math Webinar at this time. Class was canceled. Sorry.

       Technology Bootcamp - June 12 & 13 MORE INFORMATION

Follow That Blogger. In the Resource Links area of my website, you can find an area titled Follow That Blogger. Recently I added a few details to that area. If you are interested in following people in the education community who are shaking things up, feel free to follow them on Twitter, or sign up for their emails. I encourage you to explore innovative ideas that could revolutionize how you teach and what you teach.

Standards and Frameworks. In the Resource Links area of my website, you can also find Standards and Frameworks. If you are not familiar with overarching ideas that govern digital teaching methods, it is worth your time to investigate these ideas. Do you know what SAMR means? Have you looked at TPACK? Do you know what a Flipped Classroom is? Or, how to flip your classroom? What about Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy? One small detail at a time is what I suggest. Are you a PLC Lead? Feel free to add one tiny piece to each PLC session you have. 

Tinkercad and Google Integration. If you are teaching your students how to use Tinkercad (3D software), I wanted to let you know that they now have a Google Classroom button. You, the teacher, can share projects with your students using the Google Classroom button. Find out more HERE.

Image credits here.

Coding. So, what online coding tools are available? I have mentioned Code.org (you can find this in Clever). But, if that isn’t enough for you or your site, here’s a list of other tools you may want to consider. On that list, you can find resources for elementary school, middle school, and high school. LINK HERE.

Image credits HERE.

Stay curious,
Melissa Culver

QR Codes, Word Cloud, Google Forms - Week 31

CN Elementary Teaching Team:

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 31 (April 8 – April 12, 2019)

Thursday Giggles:                What do you call a fake noodle?

An impasta.

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, May 15 – Chrome Add-ons & Extensions @ Mountain View from 2:30 – 3:30 - REGISTER HERE

QR Codes. You can generate multiple QR codes at one time. It’s an Add-on for Sheets. Did you just copy and paste codes for 20+ kids to design several different QR codes? Well, you still need to copy and paste, but it will take less time with this tool.  Load the URL’s into Sheets.  Click a magic button, now you have all those links transformed.

Image credits: Google Sheets.

Once you are in the area to add an add-on (in Google Sheets), then search for QR Code Generator. Then click +FREE. You will now have access to this free tool.

Image credits: QR Code Generator from the Add-ons menu.

Image credit here.

Word Cloud. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy shows that design and create are higher order thinking skills. Here’s one tool to explore with your team if you haven’t designed or created anything digitally in a while. Mother’s Day. School spirit. Character traits. Science vocabulary. Geography terms. Characteristics that define a period in history. Poetry. You can take this lesson many different directions. Here’s a quick how-to VIDEO to get your team started. WEBSITE LINK HERE. How does your team upload these projects to Google Classroom? Use this PowerPoint to help them do that.

Google Forms. As a teacher, you might use Google Forms in your daily instruction or your campus responsibilities (Robotics, History Day, Yearbook, etc.). But, have you ever thought about teaching your students how to use this? They could create a quiz. Or, they can gather data for science. Or, they can gather survey information that could shape your classroom or your campus. Research. Essay. Data collection. Tables. Charts. Collaboration. This would rank high on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as well. If you have not considered using this as a lesson, check out this video. Feel free to use this in your instruction.

Still curious,

Melissa Culver

VR Headsets, Outlook, Code.org, Parent Connect Emails, & Night Zookeeper - Wk 30

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 30 (April 1 – April 5, 2019)

Thursday Giggles:                What dinosaur had the best vocabulary?  

The thesaurus.

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, May 15 – Chrome Add-ons & Extensions @ Mountain View from 2:30 – 3:30

VR Training. I did not blog the last two weeks. I was busy on two different campuses teaching teachers how to use VR technology. There is one mobile cart available to CUSD. If you would like training on your site, email me and we can try to get that on the calendar. What is VR technology? It is virtual reality technology. We have one set of 10 VR headsets. Children can explore over 900 different learning opportunities. You the teacher navigate them to the location and then explore that location with them. The tablet gives you a host of information to lead that virtual tour. Want more information? HEAD HERE. There are a few links that will answer some of your questions. Email me. We can get it on the calendar. What does a lesson plan look like? Here is a draft sample lesson.

Open House Slideshow. How do you consolidate student work into one slideshow to play on a loop at Open House? If student work was constructed in Google Slides, this video might help you. LINK HERE.

Outlook. Your email will stop working on your cell phone if you are using the native mail client on your phone. Here is the alternative: the Microsoft Outlook app (available in your app store). The district is going through some changes and it will roll out slowly (some people, then more people, then more people). The Microsoft Outlook app is easy to navigate once you download it. If someone on your campus says, “My email on my phone stopped working.” Please share this tip with them.

Image credits here.

Code.org. Hour of Code might be over, but the coding adventure does not need to stop. Did you know you can share an entire unit of coding with your students for free? No username or password needed. Aren’t sure how? Here’s a short video that will teach you how to do that. LINK HERE.

Parent Connect Emails. This video is perfect for the start of the year, but why not send it out now too? If parents are not sure how their children are doing academically, they can receive an email each night with an update. Lunch account details? Those can be selected too. Sherri Johnston did a great job of designing this video. LINK HERE. Feel free to share this with your families via your website or your newsletter.

Night Zookeeper.  A few weeks back 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.

Kindly,
Melissa Culver