Martin Luther King, Jr.

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This week we went back to school, after 3 weeks off. My partner teacher and I decided to start book studies on the 17th which left us wide open for this week. Well, we have Benchmark Assessments (I know, who does those the first week back from a break? Apparently, my district). This got me excited. I never feel like there is enough time to study some of the important people and events in our history. That’s when I decided to create a Hyperdoc! I have fallen in love with the model. It’s work on my end in the beginning, but so worth it! The experience and learning are so much richer for the students.

I have shared this out with my PLN and some might be using it. This is what we want! Sharing really is caring. As my students were working on it today, one came up to me and showed me that there were 3 ‘anonymous’ animals on one of the required documents. I said yes, that makes sense since I shared it. He was confused. I explained to him that others were looking for an MLK Hyperdoc and I shared the one I created. He was satisfied with the answer and walked away.

I LOVE that I can model a collaborative mindset for my students. They know I find Hyperdocs and activities online (and am sure to point out the author and give credit even when they don’t know the person). This is what I want my students to do in the future; reach out to others online to create better products and help one another.

If you’d like to use the MLK Hyperdoc, go for it and feel free to pass it along. Sharing really is creating a caring world!

Calendar: Deleting A Calendar

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I love using Google Calendar. It’s so easy to create multiple calendars to help me keep track of work, home, and other activities. However, there comes a time when I no longer need a calendar. For example, last year I created a calendar for my lesson plans. I don’t need that calendar any longer, nor do I need the daily emails with the agenda. There are also several calendars from past Google Classrooms that I no longer need. Here’s a quick guide on deleting unwanted calendars.

Navigate to your calendars. On the left side of the page find the section marked ‘My Calendars’ (if no calendars are listed, click on the down arrow next to the section). Locate the calendar you wish to delete and hover over it with your mouse. A small down arrow appears to the right. Select that go to ‘Calendar Settings’.

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This will bring you to a new page with several options listed on the left side of the page. Scroll down to Delete Calendar. Then choose the ‘Permanently Delete this Calendar’ link.

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A pop out window appears confirming your request. You will need to checkmark the box and select the ‘Delete for Everyone’ button.

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That’s all there is to it for deleting a calendar.

 

Google Classroom: Guardians

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One of the biggest pitfalls of Google Classroom, in the beginning, was that parents and/or guardians didn’t have access. This meant they didn’t know what about missing work, class activity, or upcoming work. That all changed this school year when Google announced the option to sign Guardians up in Google Classroom. Now, once Guardians are signed up, they will receive a weekly email summary. Read for more information for Guardians.

Teachers, take advantage of this and add another way to connect with your families.

Go to your Classroom and select the middle tab option marked ‘Students’. Then select the ‘Invite Guardian’ option next to each student.

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To invite the guardian(s), type their email address to invite them. If there is more than 1 guardian needing the information, no problem, simply choose the ‘Add Another’ choice before selecting ‘Invite’.

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Guardians will receive an email inviting them to receive weekly emails. They will have 120 days to accept the invitation. Guardians can read more about it here.

After ‘experimenting’ with one parent, the student commented in class that his mom saw his work and liked what he had written. As a guardian, the parent couldn’t access the student account so the student signed in to show the parent his work. However, this was a great opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about what he did in school that week!

Chrome: Find Bar

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One of my favorite features to show students is Control + f  or f3 on Windows, Linux, and Chromebooks, or Command +f on Macs. This will open up the ‘Find Bar’ for that page. What is Find Bar? Well, it’s a handy feature to narrow your field when looking for specific text. Have you ever done a search and found a great website, but there was so much text it took a while to find the exact information you needed? The Find Bar solves that problem for you!

Here I am on Google’s Wikipedia page. There is a lot of text on the page, but I only want to find out about “BackRub”, which I was told was the original name of Google. I could go to the Contents section, find History (which would be the most logical place for it to be), or I could use the Find Bar and locate Back Rub instantly.

Open up Find Bar: Control + f (Windows) or Command + f (Mac). A small bar appears in the upper right corner.

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Type in the desired text. In this case, I’ll type BackRub and hit the enter key. There are 2 places on the page where BackRub is written.

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I can either click on the arrows to the right of the Find Bar or use Control + g (Windows) or Command + g (Mac) to navigate to the next location of the text. The orange highlight denotes the current match while a yellow highlight denotes previous or an upcoming match.

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It’s pretty slick and so much more efficient. Give it a try!

Winter Break Activities

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This week I started my Winter Break. A glorious 3 weeks off from school. That also means that the students will most likely have 3 weeks off from practicing any of their skills, including reading. The no reading thing makes me sad. In an effort to combat the ‘Winter Break Slide’ (very similar to the Summer Slide) our principal requested that we give homework. As I am not a fan of homework, I designed a Winter Break Activities sheet.

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Since the students only need to choose 3 activities, it gives them some ownership and flexibility. I also tried to make them a bit more interesting as well as non-tech friendly. However, I think my favorite part is the Kindness Calendar. The calendar is ‘homework’ that everyone can agree on.

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One student noted that many items were ‘chores’. I told her it was my present to the parents!

Lesser Known Geo Tools

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It’s no secret that I LOVE Google My Maps and incorporating them into lessons. Whether it’s to have students document their learning like in the Pre-Columbian People’s lesson, or a self-guided lesson on Marco Polo (with additional tasks to show understanding); My Maps are the bee’s knees for me! But there are some insanely cool, yet lesser known, Geo Tools out there?

Smarty Pins – This fun game combines screen-shot-2016-11-15-at-6-31-27-pmtrivia and location skills. Players are given a trivia question, which correlates to a place in the world, that they then must place Peg Man on the map. This game was developed by Google. The closer you are to the location, and faster you are, the more ‘miles’ you earn. You are given 1000 miles to start the game. However, if you are not accurate you lose ‘miles’. So if your answer is 149 miles away, that’s how many ‘miles’ or points you lose. Once you are out of ‘miles’ the games ends.

GeoGuessr –screen-shot-2016-11-15-at-6-30-03-pm This is a super fun, highly addictive game (if you’re a nerd like me!). There are 2 modes and several GeoGuessr Maps to choose from. When you arrive on the site, the first game is ‘Explore the World’. Using Google Maps Street View, you are dropped in a location. Using clues (signs, vegetation, cars, etc.) you need to place a pin on the map as to the location of where you are. Scrolling a bit further down on the page, there are several maps focusing on countries, cities, and continents. I clicked on ‘North America’ where game maps for Canada and United States, along with some cities, appeared. You can set a timer for minutes and seconds. I mentioned a second mode: Challenge. This is where you can challenge a friend.

GeoSettr – This is similar to GeoGuessr, but YOU create your own GeoGuessr game. You start by dropping Peg Man in a location on the map on the left, zoom in as far as needed to find your desired location. You can see the view your players will see on the right screen. Then, set the pin for that round. You have 5 rounds. Once you have completed your GeoSettr, the game will give you a unique URL to share. You can check out mine. This could be fun for 5th Grade States and state capitals.

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History Pin – This is a new one for me. This combines my love of historical (or family shared) photos with maps. I have only browsed some collections and was in nerd heaven! Again, using Google Maps and Google Maps Street View you are shown the Street View image of what the location looks like today with an insert of a photo, or image, from the past. Check out this example from Eastern Market in Detroit, MI.

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Tour Builder – One of my all time favorites. This lets you create your own map story. The story is a bit more linear than using regular Google Maps. You choose all destinations in the order you want. You can add text, photos, and videos. Here’s a quick ‘Cheat Sheet‘ I created to help get you started.

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Google Docs: Emojis

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Last week, my students were writing an essay in their Google Docs. In the middle of writing, one student asked, “Hey, Ms. N., did you know you can insert emojis in docs?”

I was surprised and answered, “Wait, what? No? Really? Cool. Show me how.” So I went over to her table and she showed me. Pretty cool!emoji-1

So how’d she do it?

Start by going to ‘Insert’ in the menu options

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Choose the desired emoji and viola! You have an emoji in your doc. Now, what if we had students summarizing stories with just emojis?!

Thank you to my student, Johanna, for spreading her knowledge!

 

Explain Your Answer

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Shifts in Math

2000px-math-svgOne of the bigger shifts in math, aside from the building blocks in the CCSS Framework, is the ever dreaded ‘Explain your answer’. When this first came out, I wasn’t sure what they meant, the frameworks hadn’t been written yet. I had students explaining that they ‘added the ones then regrouped to get the answer.’ And while they were technically correct, there was a lot missing.

Better Understanding

Now, I have a better understanding of what is needed. The students need to break down each step and explain, using academic language, what their thought process is. I furthered my understanding when I went to a training on this. Honestly, it wasn’t the best training, but it got me thinking. I used some of the techniques to create a better lesson.

The Lesson

First, I created a template that the students were going to be using. Then, as a group, we walked through each part of the template and filled it in. There was  A LOT of guidance this first time. I’m hoping with practice, they will become more independent. Students worked in table groups to solve their table problem. Finally, they were to film their process of solving the problem. Using their ‘scripts’ students explained the process for division. Here’s an example:

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Ninja Selfies

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screen-shot-2016-10-16-at-6-31-33-pmLate last week we had CELDT testing for some students. This meant that I had several students who were NOT being tested. This meant that I really couldn’t start something new as too many students would be out. Okay, so what to do? Well, make Ninja Selfies of course!

Taking a page out of Tracy Walker‘s book, I had my students create Ninjas. My partner in crime, – in podcast crime – Nancy Minicozzi, created a tutorial on how we created our Ninjas as our logo for T.L.C. – Tech. Learn. Coffee podcast. It was a BIG hit.

It was not only fun, but they learned a trick or two. Check out their creations. I had 2 classes do this. And with their permission here are their Ninjas:


Beast Mode Writing

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We have been reading Bud, Not Buddy (fantastic book; read it if you haven’t already) and writing in our Response Journals. The kids have been doing an ‘okay’ job, and I want to challenge them. So yesterday, I asked a few students if I could display their work to the class and we would talk about it. That’s when one student shouted out, “Put mine up.” I asked if I would be impressed (I tell them to impress me as a challenge). He assured me that his writing was ‘Beast Mode’.

This is when I diverted from my lesson. I asked what would a ‘Beast Mode Writing’ look like. What attributes would it have? And so the class generated a list of what they thought ‘Beast Mode Writing’ would be (or to the rest of us, a quality writing piece).

And this is what they said:

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For a while now, I have struggled with Rubrics. On one hand, I like that the students know what is expected. On the other, I feel that some look at the least amount of work needed to pass and do just that. However, with this, it gives the students the highest standard, nothing else. This way, they will shoot for the best and nothing less. I like it! And it was student generated to boot! And yes, that includes the – Appropriate font (size and style). Okay, I had some influence on the ‘NO comic sans’ earlier this year.