Remote Learning Resources for Teachers

Teaching has never, and will never be easy. However, if you are like me and are teaching from home, you might be wishing you were back in the good old days when teaching was taking place in a classroom.

On Monday, I along with the rest of my colleagues will go live with our remote teaching for our NYC students. I thought I would round up some resources here that I have been sharing with others, or that have been shared with me. If you need help with anything, please let me know. We are all in this together!

Using Quicktime to Screen Capture

Turning off Notifications in Google Classroom

Google Tools For Struggling Students

More Free Online Edtech Resources

Google Cheat Sheet

 

Discounted Headspace for Educators

Zen At A Discount

Tomorrow marks the first day officially back to school for many educators, including myself. While I am excited to meet my new class and get myself back into the routine of work, with it always comes a little anxiety. Students have had two months of unstructured fun and getting back into the groove is just as difficult for them as it can be for us. So I was excited to learn that Headspace has a highly discounted price for k-12 educators. Last year, with the guidance of my co-teacher, we began meditation in our classroom to help students practice mindfulness and teach them ways to calm their minds and bodies. Building off this, I was on the hunt for some help to get things rolling this year and that’s when I discovered the HeadSpace educator discount.

Headspace is offering all k-12 educators in the US a one-year membership for the incredibly affordable fee of $12/year. This saves teachers a lot, considering their annual subscription is normally $7.99 month. WOW! Thank you Headspace for recognizing teachers and offering this reduced subscription fee.

Enrollment was a breeze and I was verified and signed up in under 5 minutes. Just head over to https://www.headspace.com/educators. Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the “subscribe now” button. From there you will enter some information and will be prompted to upload a picture of a document that verifies your current status as a teacher. A short time later you will receive a coupon code for your discounted subscription to a year of Zen.

Why meditate? Meditation is well known for reducing stress, but did you know that it also increases focus, attention and the ability to ignore distractions? It is even said to build immunity and compassion. Sign me up!

*This offer is currently only available to K-12 educators in the US only.

 

SEP Jr. – CSforAll

In the teacher world, there is no greater joy than sharing your passions with your students. This year my students and I have learned and grown so much together. I am so grateful to them for always being so enthusiastic about trying out new things with me. This journey started earlier this year with Genius Hour and passion projects, then we incorporated STEM activities with MakeyMakey kits, and last we ended the year learning to code with Code.org. Along the way things were messy, we failed at various things, and ultimately we learned so many valuable lessons about what true learning looks like. In fact, our new favorite motto is F.A.I.L = First Attempt In Learning.

We had so many successes this year it is hard to pinpoint our greatest. However, I can say my proudest moment occurred just this week when my students showcased their learning for Chancellor Fariña and members of the press. The Chancellor visited our class to issue a press release and watch my students during a coding lesson. During her visit, the students shared with the Chancellor their knowledge of computer science and taught her some of the basics of coding. They exuded confidence and excitement, despite the many visitors and cameras present in the room.

The Chancellor was at our school to announce the start of a new NYC elementary school pilot, SEP Jr., set to start next year. The goals of SEP Jr. is to increase the number of elementary school students, particularly from traditionally underrepresented groups, who learn computer science, and to develop students’ computational thinking and problem-solving skills in real-world contexts. (for more information click here). I applied for this pilot program on behalf of my school team and was thrilled to learn we were chosen of 110 applicants to be one of 11 selected elementary schools! What a great way to end a wonderful school year.

To read more about this and our visit, please take a look at the following articles:

NY Daily News             Chalkbeat NY                 NYC DOE Press Release

Brain Breaks 2.0 – GoNoodle

I have been incorporating brain breaks into my classroom for over 5 years now using my trusty brain break cards. However, last year the Wellness Teacher introduced me to GoNoodle and I am hooked.

If you are a teacher, I probably do not have to tell you about the importance of frequent breaks for learners. But in case you haven’t heard of this new craze, a brain break is simply a break for your brain that incorporates some movement. Although it sounds disruptive, these quick breaks actually increase engagement and stamina in students.The short periods of exercise improve the physical health, mental awareness and educational success of children.

GoNoodle is like youtube for brain breaks. A free account allows you to set up a class and watch videos that vary in length and content. After selecting an avatar, you can make it grow and morph as you accumulate time spent watching videos. Check it out and I know you and your student will be glad you did.

Types of Video

• indoor recess videos
• yoga
• mindfulness
• guided dance
• free movement
• kinesthetic learning
• calming
• stretching
• test readiness
• zumba

Since it is testing season, I should highlight the video – Take a Breath. My students really enjoy doing this before any test prep activities!

Get Your Tech’ On – NYSCATE 2015

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the NYSCATE conference in Rochester. It was of course an amazing experience. I was so happy to get together with like-minded educators using technology in their classrooms to collaborate and innovate.

I learned so many great things and was reminded about a great deal of other things, which I have used in the past but I have since forgotten about. In order to make sure I didn’t let the excitement and learning fade away with the business of running a 4th grade classroom, I decided to implement a plan to try some new things by the end of this week.

Plickers: This has been on my ‘to try list’ for what seems like forever. Plickers is a formative assessment teacher tool that requires only one device. Students are given cards (tip:print them out on cardstock) which they simply hold up in a certain direction, indicating a multiple choice answer. Then all you need to do is scan the room using your device’s camera. How great is that!

Genius hour While not as easy to implement, I am so excited to bring Genius Hour and Passion Projects to my classroom. Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. From their website: It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. The teacher provides a set amount of time for the students to work on their passion projects.  Students are then challenged to explore something to do a project over that they want to learn about.  They spend several weeks researching the topic before they start creating a product that will be shared with the class/school/world.  Deadlines are limited and creativity is encouraged.  Throughout the process the teacher facilitates the student projects to ensure that they are on task. (www.geniushour.com).

Gafe– Google acts like a second brain to me, so why shouldn’t my kids also use it to empower them? Our school launched Google apps for the teachers last year, but this year I want to make it my mission to get Google Classroom and Gafe (Google apps for education) up and running! I learned so many amazing ways to support my students and their learning that I cannot wait to get started.

Sway– Microsoft is not a company I knew much about prior to the conference, but I was blown away with all they have created (for free) for the classroom. My absolute favorite was Sway. One thing that resonated with me at the conference was how “its not about the technology, but it’s about the work.” Aligning with this mindset, Sway presents itself as a great tool because it doesn’t require a massive amount of training to use. Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app. It allows users to create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. And you and your class can use it (and all of Microsoft’s apps) for free!

Great Apps, Gone Free

I stumbled upon a great post on Appy Mall, chock full of a lot of great free apps for the classroom.Check it out, you won’t be sorry. They always have great postings, so be sure to like them on Facebook too!

Free App Post

Free Educational Apps – Act Quickly!

I found these today, thanks to http://techinspecialed.com

Please share with any speech therapists or educators who may benefit from this!

(Quoted from https://www.facebook.com/techinspecialed/info)

Not Sure How Long this Will Stay Free ***$40 Speech App gone FREE*** (39.99–>Free) Articulation with The Speech Wizard app is an innovative speech therapy tool to help children develop their articulation skills. This app includes: sound discrimination activities, flashcards, consonant blends, word, phrase, & sentence levels, data tracking, and a record button. It has been created for speech therapists, parents, and teachers to effectively teach children articulation skills in an engaging and motivating way. We use strategic sound sequence patterns with key target words and sound discrimination activities to help ensure positive outcomes.

***$20 Speech App Gone Free*** (19.99–>Free) Social Skill Builder Full is an app that uses videos to teach appropriate behaviour and social expectations in a variety of situations for preschool, elementary and high school age students. Users are shown a video clip and then are asked a series of multiple choice questions about what happened in the clip. Correct answers turn green and there is a short animation along with a verbal reinforcement. A mistake causes the question to be re asked. I thought the app used some good common examples that most students could relate to. It would definitely be helpful for those with ASD who have difficulty “reading” subtle social cues and knowing what is expected of them. – Dianne http://bit.ly/PKwZqI

***FREE app of the day*** (2.99–>Free) Neon Tiki Tribe: Bullies Written in a Dyslexia-friendly font, this title, which teaches children how to handle bullies, features bright colors, adventure, the Neon Tiki Tribe, and a review at the end for parents to create a teachable moment with parents with kids. Let this app help your child become a T.I.K.I. (Thoughtful Intelligent Kind Individual)! – Angie http://bit.ly/1lOeoqA

***Free Price Drop Alert*** (3.99–>Free) Preschool Genius Math Booster Zoo Complete. 12 richly rendered games. Play with your zoo animal friends while learning basic math skills. More than just great graphics the interesting gameplay engages kids to have fun while learning about numbers. http://bit.ly/1lrqzdg

 

***Free Price Drop Alert*** (2.99–>Free) Toy School – Letters (Educational Game for Kids to Learn Alphabet and Letters). Learn to write letters, match words with missing first letters, find animals and food that start with different letters and do much more creative tasks with TOY SCHOOL teachers. Time to play and learn the first letters!

Beware the Summer Slide! How to Keep Students Engaged in Math During the Summer

Summer is just around the bend, and I know this because my classroom is slowly starting to resemble a sauna more and more. With only a few short weeks of the school year left, it is time to start proactively planning how to keep your students engaged in math practice over the summer. Let’s be honest, that is never going to be an easy task. Sun, beach, pool, camp and multiplication. It just doesn’t have that same appeal does it? However, we all know too well the dangers of the “summer slide” so it’s up to us to do our best to combat this inevitable evil. Research shows that summer learning loss in Math is an issue that impacts every student, with students losing an average of 2-3 months of math comprehension each summer. Yikes!

Luckily however, this difficult conundrum does have an easy and free solution. So what is this panacea to the problems all teachers face when summer rolls around and student are set free? Well it is technology of course! Below you will find some web based strategies to keep your kids eagerly practicing their math facts all summer long.

Sumdog – A game-based free website that students can practice their math skills in a fun and engaging format. If you haven’t read my previous review of this website, take a look here! Your students will be begging you to let them go online and practice their skills, what’s easier than that?

Tenmarks – FREE THIS SUMMER! (a $29.95 value) All it takes is 20 minutes, three times a week on this site, and your students will be able to reverse summer learning loss. Go to the site now and download the brochure, in English or Spanish, and disseminate this powerful information to your parents! Before you say goodbye to the kids for the summer, get them on the site playing to get them hooked and keep them wanting more!

XtraMath– You know that I cannot sing enough praise for this site and the wonders it has worked to improve math fluency in my classroom. While it is not a game-based learning site, it still remains an invaluable resource for improving automaticity of math. (See my previous blog post here to learn more about this). While the kids might not be jumping up and down to do more XtraMath, I propose that you keep it going during the summer. Allow students to complete XtraMath first, earning them time on one of the other GBL sites. Since it only takes 5-10 minutes tops, they will be able to get through the review fast, making it a win-win for everyone! In your teacher account, you have the option to print out personalized Summer Flyers for each of your registered students. So hit print and keep those kids who haven’t mastered all their facts rocking and rolling! They’ll math scores later on in the year will teach them that hard work does indeed pay off!

If you have any other summer resources, please share! Enjoy the last few weeks of this school year, I know we are!

Free App – iPad apps for speech! #apraxiaawarenessday

VIA Surviving a Teachers Salary

In celebration of Apraxia Awareness Day there are several FREE high value iPad apps for speech! (US And Australia!)

Here are a few high valued apps for FREE today — available for iPad only (reg. $23.99)! Multimedia Speech Pathology is celebrating Apraxia Awareness Day on May 14 by setting these apps for FREE FOR TODAY ONLY! Both apps are available in US English and Australian English.

http://www.survivingateacherssalary.com/free-ipad-app-speech-sounds-for-kids-and-speech-sounds-on-cue-reg-24-each/

#whatthekidsneedtoknow – How to Be More Awesome!

Need to be inspired? Look no further!

(Plus, who out there doesn’t need a reason to dance?)

If you aren’t familiar with Kid President (@iamkidpresident) and his incredibly inspiring and humorous videos, now it the time to cuddle up with your laptop and visit his YouTube site, as it is long overdue! His YouTube Channel, SoulPancake is full of incredibly inspiring videos that have been enjoyed by millions. With so many great videos it’s hard to choose a favorite, but I would say that ‘A Pep Talk’ is definitely one of my top 3!

I recently shared with my students this video: Kid President’s Letter To A Person On Their First Day Here

 At the end of the video, Kid President invites the viewer to share with him their own thoughts on #whatthekidsneedtoknow. He invites us to compile a list of things that make an awesome person, and share it with the world to give more people a reason to dance! What’s not to love about this assignment? It gets students to focus on the things they want to see more in themselves and others, while also reflecting on what things in life are really important to happiness and survival … DANCING AND CORNDOGS!

In groups, my students set out to share their own life lessons to a person on their first day here. The first step, was compiling a list of at least five life lessons they wanted to focus on as a group. The second step, was to create a storyboard for their multimedia presentation. The last step, using Domo powered by GoAnimate, was to produce a cartoon video depicting #whatthekidsneedtoknow according to them! (If you want to learn more about Domo, visit this past blog post of mine).

The following are links with what they came up with. I may be biased, but I think they did a rather AWESOME job!

Group One

Group Two

Group Three 

Group Four

Exciting News: A Kid President Show is coming to the HUB network!