Prodigy: A Math Game For Elementary Skill Building - Prodigy: A Math Game For Elementary Skill Building by Richie Saltzman, prodigygame.com Ed note: This is a sponsored post from Prodigy Math, a free-to-play game with paid memberships available. What Teachers Need To Know: Prodigy Math is a web-based (not app-based) math program aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Grades 1-6. With more and more educators embracing game-based learning, it’s important to evaluate and choose the program that works best for you and your students. Prodigy is a free, adaptive math game that integrates common-core math (grades 1-7) into a fantasy style game that students love playing. And as a web-based game, Prodigy can be accessed at school and at home on virtually any device. Teacher Endorsements Over 1,000,000 students and 50,000 teachers use Prodigy for free math practice and it’s easy to see why. Sarah Z, Grade 5 Ontario Public School Shoshanna Cohen, Grade 2 Seattle Public School “I teach 2nd grade in a dual language classroom in Seattle.
Google Slides: Adding Transitions and Animations - Full Page In Google Slides adding transitions is simple. Also in Google Slides adding animations is easy. Learn how to perform both functions here. Adding transitions and animations Presentations don't have to be a series of static slides. Google Slides has one pane to manage all of your transitions and animations. Transitions and animations are best used in moderation. To add a transition: Select the desired slide, then click the Transition command on the toolbar. To add an animation: Right-click the desired object, then select Animate. If the Animations pane is already open and you want to add more animations, you can select an object and click Add animation. Animation options By default, an effect starts playing when you click the mouse during a slide show. If the object is a placeholder or text box, the By paragraph check box will be displayed. You can also adjust the speed of the animation by dragging the animation speed slider. Challenge! Open our example file.
Nearpod is Venturing into Virtual Reality! - Teachers With Apps Virtual Reality (VR) is the next step in the educational technology revolution. Virtual Reality allows students to visually immerse themselves in an environment other than their own. Students are transported to places all over the world without ever leaving their seat. Google Cardboard is perhaps most well known for using this technology in classrooms. Nearpod has worked to change this dynamic. Rather than the VR being the sole component of this amazing educational tool, it is used to enhance engaging, interactive lessons. Visiting Nearpod’s site for the first time, teachers create an account and are able to download the pre-made lessons, many of which can be modified by the teacher to meet their specific needs. This week, I used Ne arpod’s VR lessons in grades 1-5.
30 Free Google Drawings Graphic Organizers Several years ago when I started making webinars, my first one was on creating Graphic Organizers with Google Drawings. This was before I had started the this blog, so I never really shared all of that information in an official blog post. Until now... Graphic organizers are a great tool to share information, explain a concept, or illustrate a relationship using elements including images, shapes, text, colors, and connecting lines. They can be used in education with any age group or subject area. There are many excellent tools for creating graphic organizers. However, one great choice for graphic organizers is Google Drawings. Tutorials For written directions on how to create graphic organizers with Google Drawings, see my help guide linked below. Google Drawings for Graphic Organizers - Google Docs link For a 1-hour recorded training webinar, see the video below. Sample Graphic Organizers Word Study Diagram - Google Drawing link State or Country Research Web - Google Drawing link Conclusion
I Have A New Favorite Animated Video Creator.....Look What You Can Create With Explee! It's that time of year. Time for cold, snowy weather and that brings snow days too. Today a lot of us have a snow day so why not create something new. I have a new favorite that I have been having a lot of fun with lately. With Explee, you can Create, share and discover educational animated video, as their website states. When I first read that description, I wondered if it would be tricky to use and create using Explee. Explee also has a wonderful Education Account....You can sign up here to get your membership and learn more about why using animated videos is so powerful in education. As I said, it is really fun and easy to create animated videos with Explee. One of things I think it so cool about Explee....the Text to Speech feature. Wouldn't this be fun to use with a foreign language class as kids are speaking and listening in different languages. After you add all of the elements you want to your Explee, you Export it and choose which Privacy you would like for your creation.
Google Slides: Adding Pictures and Shapes - Full Page In Google Slides adding pictures is easy. Also in Google Slides adding shapes is simple. Learn how to do both in this free lesson. Adding pictures and shapes Adding pictures and shapes can make your presentations more interesting and engaging. The picture and shape tools in Google Slides also let you customize your images by cropping, reordering, changing colors, and adding other formatting. Inserting pictures You can insert a picture from a file on your computer onto any slide. To insert a picture: Open the Insert menu, then select Image. Formatting pictures There are a variety of ways to format the pictures in your slide show. To crop an image: Select the image you'd like to crop, then click the Crop command. To crop an image to a shape: Select the image you want to crop, then click the Mask Image drop-down arrow next to the Crop command. After cropping the image to a shape, you can click the crop button again to use the cropping handles and adjust the size and proportions of the shape.
5 Tips for Teachers in a New 1-to-1 Initiative -- THE Journal Teaching & Learning with Technology 5 Tips for Teachers in a New 1-to-1 Initiative By Jeff Mao In the winter of 1993, I was a first-year teacher, dorm parent and coach at Brewster Academy on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for a New England boarding school. The work we did that day led to a transformational change in how we supported our students. I was a new teacher, and I was not really prepared to teach in that new environment, but I had the benefit of youth and bravado. When I look back over the past 25 years, I have found some consistent and experience-proven guideposts that I think can help any teacher find success in their 1-to-1 classroom. 1. First, let’s address the elephant in the room. I facilitated and managed the statewide 1-to-1 program in Maine that provided the laptops students carry to and from school everyday. 2. Traditional printed textbooks have been the mainstay of our education system for decades.
15 FREE Google Drawings graphic organizers — and how to make your own Sometimes, we just need some help organizing our thoughts — students AND educators. Paper versions of graphic organizers can do a nice job of that. But by making them digital in Google Apps, they instantly become customizable. Multiple people can collaborate on them in real time. They can be shared with a link, embedded in a website or downloaded as an image file. In short, digital graphic organizers are more versatile. In Google Apps, there’s a highly powerful yet highly overlooked app called Drawings.It gives users a blank canvas where they can add text, shapes, lines, etc. Drawings can be the virtual page where students can gather and process their ideas. I used to shy away from doing a lot of graphic organizers because it’s hard to design them in Google Docs; the moment I learned that you could change the page set-up to 8.5 x 11 inches, my world CHANGED. Creating graphic organizer templates with Google Drawings Sharing your Google Drawings graphic organizers
Creating Structures & Growing Patterns Using Minecraft #onted In this article we are going to explore a lesson involving the creation of a student product using Minecraft to demonstrate a growing linear pattern. This lesson is applicable to junior and intermediate grades here in Ontario but we will focus on specific expectations from grade 8. Not only are we covering the expectations below, we will touch upon the 6 C’s, inquiry and developing a student’s spatial awareness as they have to plan their 3D canvas. Also, this provides a perfect opportunity for assessment as outlined in Growing Success (observation, conversation and student product). Specific Expectations: The 6 C’s include: The overall purpose of these six Cs and their underlying DNA is the well-being of the whole student, and the well-being of society, which essentially consists of higher levels of student achievement and the capacity to apply what one knows Overall Expectations:
Google Slides: Slide Basics - Full Page When working in Google Slides slide basics can help you become more comfortable with the program. Learn all about slides here. Slide basics Every Google Slides presentation is composed of a series of slides. Understanding slides and slide layouts When you insert a new slide, it will usually have placeholders to show you where text will be placed. Creating a slide and selecting a layout Whenever you start a new presentation, it will contain one slide with the Title Slide layout. Click the drop-down arrow next to the New slide command. To change the layout of an existing slide, click the Layout command, then choose the desired layout. To quickly add a slide that uses the same layout as the selected slide, click the New slide command. Organizing slides Google Slides presentations can contain as many slides as you need. Duplicate slides: If you want to copy and paste a slide quickly, you can duplicate it. Delete slides: If you want to remove a slide from your presentation, you can delete it.
The Google Classroom Quick-Start Guide + tips and tricks! Google Classroom makes organizing and managing all of your Google Apps activities streamlined and easy. Set it up in minutes. (Sketch by Matt Miller) Google Classroom was created to focus less time on tech and more time on teaching. Classroom has streamlined the classroom workflow and makes communication easier between teaches and students. It creates a central home for class activities.It lets teachers create assignments (and other class activities).It collects assignments from students.It helps teachers grade assignments and provide feedback.It returns assignments to students. Have you set up Google Classroom in your classroom? This guide will show you how to set Google Classroom up in a matter of minutes and perform the main tasks. Consider keeping this post open in one tab in your browser and Classroom in another so you can refer back. Let’s get started! Set up your class in Google Classroom 1. 2. 3. You must add a name for your class. 4. 5. Using Google Classroom in everyday class 1.