William Annin Middle School | Showcase | YoYo Games Who are you, what is your role and what class(es) do you teach Steven Isaccs, Teacher of 8th grade Video Game Design and Development. What versions of GameMaker do you use? Currently, GameMaker Studio. What made you choose GameMaker? GameMaker provides a wonderful opportunity for students to create games in an easy to understand, concrete manner while still maintaining an authentic introduction to computer programming concepts. How many students do you teach at a time? I teach 3 sections of the 8th grade elective. How long are you classes? 40 minutes How long is your course? 20 weeks Do the students work alone or in groups? Both. What background/majors/emphasis do the students have? It varies. How are the students graded on their GameMaker projects? I utilize a Quest-based learning management system for my course. How would you rate the students' interest in game development before and after the class? Their interest level is high prior to and after the class. Absolutely!
5 Time-Saving Ways Teachers Can Use Google Forms One of my favorite features of Google Drive is Google Forms. If you’re unfamiliar with this, think of it as a way to create quick surveys that can be used for a number of applications. Google automatically aggregates this data into a Google Spreadsheet, making forms a great way to quickly collect and share information. I have seen educators and administrators use Google Forms in the most creative and inventive ways. Collect Contact Information At the beginning of the year, I find that a great ice-breaker with my students is to share a Google Form that asks their name, contact information, and something unique and interesting about themselves. Similarly, it is often necessary to collect information from parents for special events. Bell Ringer & Exit Ticket Activities Google Forms are a great medium to engage students in bell ringer and exit ticket activities (a means to gauge what a student has learned at the end of a lesson). Collect Homework Collecting homework is often an onerous task.
Ten Websites for Science Teachers We all know that the web is full of excellent web resources for science teachers and students. However, unless you live on the web, finding the best websites can become quite a challenge. This isn't a "Top Ten" list -- instead, it is a list of websites that I either use on a regular basis or just find interesting. From teaching resources for the nature of science and authentic field journals to wacky videos about numbers, I am sure that you will find something in the following list the works for you! 1) Understanding Science UC Berkeley's Understanding Science website is a "must use" for all science teachers. 2) Field Research Journals The Field Book Project from the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Archives intends to create a "one stop" archive for field research journals and other documentation. 3) Evolution Berkeley's Understanding Evolution website is the precursor to their Understanding Science efforts. 4) PhET Simulations 5) Earth Exploration video
Hack Education Ed-Tech Guide Google Forms in Education | Edcentric Google Forms in Education Though Google Docs has permeated through education over the last five years, Google Forms is still relatively new to most educators. Forms can be used by students, teachers, administrators, and other staff members. Before giving examples of how educators can use Google Forms, it is important to give a brief introduction. Google Forms is essentially a survey tool; however, it can be used for assessment. Forms gives you the chance to ask the following types of questions: short answer, paragraph answer, multiple-choice, checkboxes, list, grid, and scale. Teachers There are many ways that teachers can use Google Forms, from assessments to polling student interest on certain topics (Google Moderator will do something similar). An example form: Teachers could then evaluate the general feelings with the specific answers students gave to decide on the next step in instruction. Over the next week I will create multiple posts concerning Google Forms. -edcentric- Like this:
TomatoTimer 7 Wonderful Google Docs Tutorials for Teachers Google Drive has all the features that make it a very powerful productivity suite for teachers. Besides being able to create documents, slides, drawings and spreadsheets , users can also upload their own PDFs and files and sync them with their Google Drive accounts across different devices. Another good thing about Google Drive which I mentioned yesterday in " File Sharing Tools I recommend for Teachers" is that it is web based and can also work offline. With Google Drive installed on your computer or tablet, you can access your downloaded docs and work on them the way you want and once connected to internet you can then sync them to the cloud. To help you better tap the usefulness of Google Drive I am sharing with you these wonderful video tutorials created by Anson Alexander. 1- Composing Google Docs 2- Sharing Files 3- Document Organization 4- What is Google Spreadsheet ? 5- Create a mail merge with Gmail and Google Drive 6-Email Multiple Doc Attachments with Google Drive in Gmail
Tour Builder Important: As of July 2021, Google Tour Builder is no longer available. On July 15, 2021, Tour Builder was shut down and the following associated data will be deleted: Links to tours that you created or were shared with you Publicly available tours Information in the Tour Builder Gallery If you want to create new 3D maps and stories about places that matter to you, use the expanded functionality of Google Earth’s creation tools. About Tour Builder When Tour Builder launched in 2013, Google wanted to share a web-based tool that made it easy to add and share photos and videos to a sequence of locations on Earth. With Projects, you can turn our digital globe into your own storytelling canvas and collaborate with others through Google Drive. Learn about Google Earth & Google Earth Pro You can learn more with the Google Earth help center articles and frequently asked questions.
My Best of series You can find all of my “Best” lists in broad categories here. The link to that page can also be found at the top right of my blog: My Best Of Series I also have them all on another page where they are listed in the chronological order in which I originally posted them. Two thousand “Best” lists are a lot of best lists! In an effort to make them both further accessible and to update many of them, I began posting “Best Lists Of The Week.” I’ve created about sixty-five of them so far and they encompass a few hundred “Best” lists. You will find these newly categorized lists on a page titled My Best Of The Week, and they’ll be shown as “buttons” (you can see what they look like at the top of this blog post) listed alphabetically (more-or-less). I hope you find the lists, and the way they’re organized, helpful! Please note that I continually update and revise all of the lists. The Best Resources Discussing The Importance Of Art In Education — Help Me Find More All My BAM! Reading
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