Hour of Code / Computer Science Week is Here!

Hour of Code and Computer Science Week begins today!   

The goal of this week is not only to introduce our students to coding, but to help our students explore the many ways computers can help us create, collaborate, and innovate! 

I've collected a few awesome resources below that will get students creating and solving problems with their developing computer skills and knowledge.  Give one or two a try this week!

Hour of Code  is the first site most of us think of during this week.  It is indeed a great site to get kids excited about coding.  It offers activities for students broken down by all grade levels including Pre-Readers through High School.  Just click on the grade level tab you are interested in for some great ideas.

A Google a Day  This activity is better suited for older students.  It starts with question.  Students are challenged to find the correct answer using Google Search.  It is often played as a game of who can find the correct answer first.  The questions are tricky so you need to use some smart search terms to find the answers. The topics include Culture, Geography, History and Science.

Thinglink Advent Calendars  Advent calendars are all around us in December!  Don't limit yourself to thinking of these as just a holiday activity.  Advent calendars can countdown any event with links and activities to use along the way.  Check out this link to see some creative ways to use Thinglink to create class advent calendars.

Screencastify    This easy to use Chrome extension allows students to record their voice and their computer screen.  Students simply hit record while they share and explain whatever is on their screen.  A great tool for students to create tutorials, narrate a Google Slides presentation, or explain and share their work. Automatically saves in Google Drive.

WeVideo This application is already loaded in the Apps section of student Chromebooks and integrates with Google Drive.  Learn simple, yet impressive video editing with this easy to use format.  Add soundtracks, special effects and more.  If video editing intimidates you, just let your students give it a try.  They will have it mastered in no time!  Students will have a blast making video presentations instead of the usual paper report.

Genius Hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. Students research and execute a project of their own choosing and then present their project using a variety of presentation methods .   Click here to learn more about what Genius Hour is and here for a video example of projects that students have completed.

Additional Resources:

Computers:

Scratch from MIT https://scratch.mit.edu/

iOS Devices:

Hopscotch https://www.gethopscotch.org/

Lightbot http://lightbot.com/ios.html

“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult

Providing students with effective and engaging feedback is critical in helping students improve their writing. Studies have shown that 'feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior....Feedback can improve a student's confidence, self-awareness and enthusiasm for learning'. ¹

Often, the difficulty is providing this feedback in a timely manner.  Giving effective feedback can be an incredibly time consuming task for the writing instructor.

Enter - CheckMark Extension by EdTechTeam

This extension may quickly become the writing teacher's best friend.  It allows teachers to quickly provide feedback in Google Docs using the most common editing marks such as "Check Spelling", "Details Needed", "Evidence Needed", "Capitalization" etc. 

Simply highlight a word or sentence and the following template appears on the page.

Each key represents an editing comment that can be seen when hovering. When clicked, it will automatically generate the associated comment and track the number of occurrences for that type of comment.

Watch the tutorial video below to learn more and see it in action.
Get the extension here. 

1. Bellon, J.J., Bellon, E.C. & Blank, M.A. (1991) Teaching from a Research Knowledge Base: a Development and Renewal Process. Facsimile edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. 

Voice Typing in Google Docs

With this free, accurate, and easy to use tool, teachers can facilitate composition from all types of students who may have had a barrier previously. Some uses might be for students learning English to practice, students with learning disabilities or other writing difficulties, or students composing digitally without needing to first struggle with typing or finding letters.

Other uses might be for interviews or transcription assignments. This feature also supports several accents of French, German, and Spanish, so a Foreign Language department might have a use for this as well.

The current voice typing function in google docs has been around for a couple years and remains a powerful tool for educators and learners. While touch typing remains a necessary skill, teachers will still recognize the scenarios when this voice-to-text accommodation is most educationally useful. Many others have reviewed the function before today and they highlight the reasons educators might select this tool.

Voice typing is already included in Google Docs functionality, so every student already has access to this with no need to download or login to a new app. Google continues to add recognized languages. This also means that the functionality remains free to use. One frequent complaint of voice to text features is that they are inaccurate. Ask Siri a few questions to see where those complaints come from. Google’s voice typing, as Matthew Hughes at Make Use Of shared, is far more accurate than many of the current phone apps and includes support for accents.

Below is an easy to follow set of How To directions and a How To Video. Try out this function with your class, or let us know how you’ve already used this in your classroom.
How To Directions from Make Use Of - Scroll down to the “Getting Started” sectionVideo How To from You Tube

Why:

Easy, accurate, removes barriers to access, free and already installed.
Much has been written.http://www.alicekeeler.com/2017/10/16/3-google-docs-tools/http://www.alicekeeler.com/2015/09/03/voice-typing-comes-to-google-docs/http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/09/have-you-tried-voice-typing-in-google.html#.WgCwvVxKvUIhttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/voice-typing-new-best-feature-google-docs/
Help page:https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226?hl=enVideo review:https://youtu.be/ELXuz94tzsI
Still being updated and added to:https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/14/googles-voice-typing-tech-adds-support-for-30-more-languages-reaching-further-into-africa-india/

A Couple of Very Cool Googly Things!

Password Protect a Google Form

Upload a Google Form Quiz into Google Classroom and prevent student access until class time.

Perhaps you do not want students who are absent taking the quiz from home and using unauthorized resources.

Here is a great way to password protect your Google Form.  

Watch this short little video below and remember, you can also make a copy of the form for each class period and have a unique password for each period as well.

Auto Upload Grades from your Google Form into Google Classroom!

Now that many of you are creating Google Form Quizzes and distributing them through Google Classroom let's make importing those grades easier.  

Google has now added an "Import Grades" feature.  You are going to love this one!  Check out this short two minute video to learn this time saving feature.

CUE Tips

The annual CUE Conference (Computer Using Educators) was filled with interesting Tips, Tricks, Strategies and Inspiration.  

As always, it is a little overwhelming to attend as the number of class choices is a mile long!  

Aaron Stephens and I would each like to share with you a favorite Tip we learned while there.

Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology

Are you looking for a way to spark your students to be more creative, while practicing their communication skills and writing? Try having them create an online comic strip that communicates what they have learned or are thinking.

This year at the Computer Using Educators Conference (CUE) the workshop I enjoyed the most turned out to be quite different than I was expecting. When I sauntered into the Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology, what I was expecting was a survey of the various comic book styled educational texts that are coming out. Instead what I experienced was an exciting and dynamic way to fan the flames of student creativity by having the students demonstrate their thinking through creating their own comic strips.

Melissa Baldwin, the workshop presenter, shared with us a list of the most useful online tools for creating creating graphic novels/comic strips (see link below). While the application of creating comic strips is a little more straightforward for subjects such as literature and history, wherein students can depict events and interactions, they can certainly be applied to even math and science. While teaching Earth Science and Biology, I would often use an approach called Model Based Reasoning, in which students were to grapple with their understanding of a phenomenon. In this approach students often needed to depict their thinking in a visual way. Here is where the students could engage in creating a comic strip that shows their thinking.

I can attest through personal experience, that creating comic strips is really fun. The best part for someone like myself, who lacks artistic ability, is the fact that these online tools provide the artwork for you. So even the least artistic student can create wonderful comic strips.

I highly recommend setting aside some time to give this creative process a shot in your classroom. The students will have fun, and I think you will be amazed at the creative output from your students.

Online Comic Book Creator Sites   https://goo.gl/N95ygh

Enjoy,

Aaron Kelly Stephens

VUSD Digital Education Coordinator

Graspable Math

This one if for all the Math Teachers who may feel a little left out of the technology train we are on.

Graspable Math has given students and teachers a truly interactive and manipulative approach to math using a math canvas.  Please start by viewing the video tutorials here.  

As the website explains  "In a world where technology has advanced at astonishing rates, the technology of math notation hasn't really changed in 400 years.  The easiest way to write and solve an equation is still by hand, on paper."

I loved their analogy of learning to play chess by marking and notating your moves on paper rather than physically manipulating the chess pieces.  Very difficult to truly grasp the skills and strategies needed to succeed without being able to physically manipulate the pieces.

With Graspable Math Canvas, Teachers can demonstrate and manipulate the algebraic steps and graphing.  You can undo, redo, and experiment with different problem solving strategies safely.

Teachers can post a Math Canvas link through Google Classroom to distribute to students.  Students then manipulate the equation through a variety of tools, save their work and submit their completed link to the teacher. Students are able to save their work for later completion or revision as well.

Check it out for yourselves here   Click on the "Applications" tab - then "Canvas".  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Dawn Marsh

I See What You Did There!

Check in on Your Students' Document History

The ability for students to collaborate on a Google Doc or Slide is one of the hallmark features of G-Suite. However, as with most tech features, there are good uses and not so good uses.  G-Suite provides teachers with the ability to obtain a detailed view of the document activity so you can check in on your little darlings.

Have you had students collaborate on a Google Doc or Slide? Would you like to see if they contributed equally to the final product?

Have you ever suspected that a student received help from a fellow student on a document when they were not supposed to?

Would you like to see a history of the comments that were made during the production of a Google Doc or Slide?

You can check the Revision History of a Doc, Slide or Sheet when the student turns it in and view the document activity.   This is important information that most of you are aware of, however, it's always worth a reminder.

Please click on the link below to access the How-To doc.

https://goo.gl/JLrHY5