Coding for Littles

Computer Science Education Week

December 3-7

Coding and Programming is fun for all ages! 😎 They also support the skills needed to prepare students for the future. Here are some coding options for younger students.

Kodable: This Chrome or iPad friendly tool offers several options for younger students. K-2: Create Amazing Mazes, Grades 2-5: Build Your Own Fuzzes, and Grades 3-5: Create Your Own Space Puzzle Game. No sign-in necessary to "play" during Hour of Code (TM). 

Daisy the Dinosaur: This iPad app is easy to use with the drag and drop interface. Make Daisy the Dinosaur dance by solving challenges while learning the basics of objects, sequencing, loops and events.

ScratchJr: This iPad app is geared for students ages 5-7. ScratchJr also comes from the brilliant minds at MIT.  Students use block coding to program their own interactive stories and games. 

Hopscotch: This iPad app teaches students 8 and older how to code and create apps and games for iPhones and iPads.

Tynker: Well, this one works for all ages. 😀 And is Chrome and iPad friendly. 😃

It's one of my favorites and is a must check out. 

More Coding Options!

Computer Science Education Week

December 3-7

Get Girls Coding - Made with Code from Google: This website has a lot of fun options for girls. Use code to create gifs, dances, music mixes, avatars, soundtracks, fashion, and so much more. 

CS First from Google: No Experience Needed! Google offers this free and easy to use Computer Science Curriculum kit. Check out sample activities here. This is a great introduction to computer science using the block programming language Scratch from MIT. And even better it's been tested and approved by SAISD students!
"My students really enjoyed Google CS First." Marie Marshall, Santa Rita Elementary.

Scratch from MIT is a programming language in which students use block coding to create stories, games, and animations. Scratch is free and fun for all ages. 

It's Almost Here!

Computer Science Education Week

December 3-7

“The 'Hour of Code™' is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week [csedweek.org] and Code.org [code.org] to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming.”

The skills used to learn coding and programming are important to our future learners. Not only is coding and programming a booming job market, but computational thinking is also great for supporting our SAISD Learner Profile: Creating, Critical Thinking, Collaborating, and Communicating.

Your challenge this year is to have your students code for at least an hour during Computer Science Education Week. 

Here are a few resources to help you get started: 

hourofcode.com - Be sure to fill out the Join Us form for a chance to win some of the awesome prizes below:

hourofcode.com also offers:
Tutorials and Activities for all ages.
Local Volunteers who will help run a session or talk coding or programming to inspire students!

code.org
Hour of Code Activities
No Devices? No problem! Check out their unplugged activities.
Celebrate Hour of Code with Certificates!

Add to Your Teacher Toolbox

*Made in signbot

Finding time to learn new things for ourselves can be challenging. Today, I actually had some time to sit, read, and catch-up on some of my instructional technology blogs, tweets, articles, and newsletters that help me keep up-to-date with what is going on in the world of instructional and educational technology.

If you have not had a chance to check out Alice Keeler's website and use Google Apps in the classroom, I encourage you to check out a few interesting (and totally useful) blogs from her:

• For Science Teachers: Adding PhET Sims to Google Classroom
• For Any Subject or Teacher who uses Google Forms: Google Forms: One Form for All Periods
• For Teachers who use Google Classroom and have an Android Device: Google Classroom Student Chooser Feature
• I tried this one on my android phone. It is so cool! 😎
• For any class that writes: Google Slides Essay
• For Math Teachers: Open Middle: Equivalent Fractions Activity
• You can find out more about this website in our online newsletter.

Digital Citizenship Week

Here are a few ideas for this week. 😀


Be a Digital Citizen ALL Year Long - Download or Create a Digital Citizenship Pledge for your class to sign.

• From Google Be Internet Awesome Pledge
• Citizen Pledge Lesson Plan from Common Sense (3rd-5th)
• Digital Citizenship Pledge Poster from Common Sense 

Get Students Thinking and Talking - Have a Flipgrid Discussion

• What can students do to keep themselves safe in their social media environments?
• How can students cite sources and use content for multimedia projects safely and ethically? 
• How can we use technology to communicate and collaborate with others in order to help solve problems for local and global communities?

Promote Appropriate Communication Skills and Respect for Other Perspectives - Have students work collaboratively on a Google Slide or Doc. Skype or Hangout with another class to learn more about their culture and learning experiences.

Have some Online FUN while learning - Check out the following interactive games for students

• Digital Passport from Common Sense
• Digital Compass from Common Sense
• Digital Bytes from Common Sense
• Interland from Google

Teacher Others - Design a poster, info-graphic, or video teaching others about the importance of being a good digital citizen. 

Responsible Online Leaders

Digital Citizenship Week - October 15-19

Digital Citizenship is a user's appropriate and responsible behavior with regard to technology use.

From the moment a student is handed a device, he or she should apply their “digital” citizenship skills. K-12 students should be taught how to work respectfully with others online, be safe while online, solve problems, communicate clearly and appropriately, distinguish facts from opinions; truths from falsehoods, and how being a good online citizen can empower them.

Here are a few resources, ideas, and activities to help you develop and support good online citizens.

• 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship
• Common Sense Media - This website has an entire curriculum for K-12 grades. It also has wonderful videos, posters, and activities to help support digital citizenship all year long. 
• Google Teacher Center: Digital Citizenship and Safety Course - This course for teachers took me less than 2 hours to complete. Teachers will walk away with ideas, videos, and activities that you can use immediately with your students. Upon completion of the course, you also receive a certificate.
• Be Internet Legends - Free online program from Google to help children be responsible, safe, and appropriate users of technology. 
• Be Internet Awesome Resources
• Be Internet Awesome Presentations - Google Slide presentations that can be used in class.
• Be Internet Awesome Interland Online Game

Want to see this and so much more in action? If you missed our PD in your PJs Digital Citizenship Webinar, you still have an opportunity to view our recording. Just click HERE.

Design Resources for that Fun, Fresh, Professional Look

If you weren't at Tuesday's PD in Your PJs, you missed an amazing time with our guest host, Mrs. Rodriguez from Central High School. But don't panic, you can still check out the amazing resources, tips and tricks that she shared by viewing the webinar recording. As you and your students begin to publish work that goes beyond the classroom walls, these tools will help to make sure that all finished products look fun, fresh and professional.

Here are just a few resources that you'll hear more about and see in action in the recording.
Color *If you are as color changed as I am, these tools will have you matching colors in no time. 😀

Color Swatch Generator
100 Color Combos 

Swatch

ColorZilla (Chrome Extension)

Fonts

Google Font Combos
Word Font Pairings

Text Animators

Text Animation: Textanim.com

Scrolling Text Sign: Signbot

Typewriter GIF: Screedbot

See these tools and so much more!

  

Digital Reflections and Explanations

The last few years #BookSnaps with SnapChat has been all the rage. A BookSnap is a digital, visual representation used to explain/reflect on a book or excerpt. In a digital age where most students live, it's a way of engaging and connecting them to text. But what if you have younger students in which SnapChat, a social media-photo sharing tool is not the most appropriate?






Here are a few more options to get your students connecting with text and sharing what they've read with BookSnaps:

Google Slides

Google Drawings

Book Creator

PicCollage

Skitch


Creating a BookSnap is easy to do:
1. Have Text
2. Pick Appropriate Tech Tool
3. Snap a Pic
4. Highlight, Annotate, Sketch, add Stickers to Question, Reflect, Explain, Connect, or Clarify
5. Share

Check out our latest PD in your PJs, BookSnaps in Action or the following resources from #BookSnaps Expert, Tara Martin: #BookSnaps - Snap for Learning.

Screencasting for Teachers & Students

Students love watching and making videos. So, why not use that interest to promote and enhance learning? With today's screencasting tools, making videos are easier than ever. 
Screencasting is the process in which a screencasting tool captures and records everything that is happening on your computer screen while you narrate. 

Benefits of Screencasting: 

• Caters to a variety of learning styles: Audio, Visual, Kinetic
• Visual & Audio Feedback for Student's Digital Work
• Student Centered
• Personal & Self-Paced Learning
• Engaging & Authentic Learning Experiences
• Gets Students Communicating and Creating
• Students can Learn and Review 24/7
• Reinforces Concepts, Topics, Objectives
• Improves Retention
• Flipped, Blended, or Online Learning Options

Ideas for Screencasting: 

• Visual & audio feedback for students
• Have students "show and tell" what they know
• Leave a message for when you are not able to be in class
• Make how-to/tutorial videos for students who need extra support 
• Make videos notes for students and parents to use when students are absent
• 7 Classroom Screencasting Activities from Screencastify and Eric Curts
• 10 Ways to Use Screencasting for Formative Assessments from the CoolCat Teacher, Vicki Davis
• Screen Record and Narrate in any APP with iOS11 from Tony Vincent, 
• Scroll until you see the following image : 

 

Tips before Screencasting:

1. Plan, plan, plan - Planning is so important and time saving. Create a storyboard or dialogue of what you will do on the screen and say while recording.
2. Practice - Many of the free screencasting tools do not offer edit features and limit record time. 
3. Prepare -Get your area ready that you will use for recording: quiet, nice lighting, etc. Get your screen ready that you will use for recording: open all necessary materials, check sound, close windows/tabs not used, etc. 
4. Perform - Record, Watch, Post/Share, and have FUN!

Screencasting Tools to Try:

• Screencastify (Chrome Extension) 
• Loom (Chrome Extension)
• Screencast-o-matic
• Explain Everything
• Awesome screenshot: Screen Video Recorder (Chrome Extension)
• iPevo Whiteboard (iPad)
• Draw and Tell (iPad) *Great for K-2

Resources:
Ruffini, M. (2018). Screencasting to Engage Learning. [online] EDUCAUSE Review. Available at: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2012/11/screencasting-to-engage-learning [Accessed 30 Aug. 2018].

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2018). The Ultimate Screencasting Guide for Teachers and Students. [online] tween teacher. Available at: http://tweenteacher.com/2016/11/11/the-ultimate-screencasting-guide-for-teachers-and-students/ [Accessed 30 Aug. 2018].

Back-to-School Ideas

Ideas with a Technology Twist

Turn your first day of school from dull to OH YEAH! 😎

Here are a few ideas to get students eager, energized, and excited for the new school year. 

From Kasey Bell & Shake Up Learning: "Back to School with GSuite: 6 Activities for the Classroom"

• Google Forms to create Student Interest Surveys
• Google Slides to create Vision Boards
• Google Keep to set learning goals
• Google Experiments to play an Emoji Scavenger Hunt
• Check out Kasey's FREE template to create magnetic poetry * This fun template can be used all year long to reinforce vocabulary skills.
• Follow Kasey's step-by-step directions to design and create a custom Google Classroom header.

Other ideas:

• Flipgrid Introductions
• STEM Challenges to get those brain muscles awake and thinking
• 50+Back to School Ideas from Matt Miller's Ditch That Textbook
• Adobe Spark Video Introductions
• A Kahoot or Quizlet Live Game
• A GooseChase Scavenger Hunt
• From Britany Hernandez at Lake View High School: Emoji Ice Breaker 
• Example Padlet: Get to Know You Activity & Direction Slides

Have other FUN ideas for the beginning of school? Please share yours in the comment section. 

Welcome Back!

EdTech with Howard and Feck are excited about the new school year!  

We look forward to sharing technology integration ideas and strategies here at "THE CLICK". We can't wait to see all the wonderful ways that you and your students use technology to enhance and transform learning this year.

Fun with Citations

On last night's PD in Your PJs Webinar, we shared a variety of citation resources for students. With all the available information that is out there for students, it is important for them to know how to evaluate the information and cite their sources whether that be for print or images. And it's never too early for a student to begin practicing and learning these skills.

Citation Extensions from the Chrome Web Store

• Cite This For Me (Free)
• Apogee
• EasyBib

Photos for Students

• Pics4Learning - The photos can be saved to Google Drive and a citation can be found beside all photos.
• EduPic Graphical Resource: Free Photographs and Graphics for Education - Website is done by William Vann, a photographer and teacher. Teachers and students can use all images without permission. 
• Unsplash - Not for those under 13. No attributions are needed. There is an add-on for Unsplash in Google Slides. 

Citations are also made easy with the Explore feature in Google Docs. Click Tools>Explore.

If you missed our guest PD in Your PJs Presenters Mrs. Grover from Lee Middle School and Mrs. Hogg from Central High School, you can watch the recording on our Instructional Technology Website. With all the resources they shared (and citations are included in many of the resources) this should be the first place students go for quality information. 

If you and your students have other citation tools that you use, please share those by adding them to the comment box below. 

Repost: Critical Thinking Skills with Google Trends

GOOGLE TRENDS

Google Trends is a search tool that allows teachers and students to see how often specific keywords, subjects, and phrases are being searched on Google around the world for a specific period time. The data is shown using visual graphics, charts and tables. Users are then able to see and compare trends(what's being searched). Trends can also be broken down in to categories. 

Google Trend is the perfect tool to spark discussion in the classroom and have student use their critical thinking skills. For example, simply ask students "iPads or Chromebooks? Which do you think is used more as a learning tool?" Go to Google Trends, type the keywords in the search boxes, use the category feature to keep breaking down the comparison, click enter, and a great visual will populate. Discuss. Infer. Predict.  Here's an example:

*This shows worldwide

*This shows for the US. 

*This shows for Texas. 

And underneath these graphs are even more visual charts and graphs leading to more discussion, questions, and research. I didn't include them here due to space. 

If you don't want to create your own, you can always use, explore, and interact with the google trend graphs and charts already created on the site. 

Use Google Trend in the classroom to...

• Interpret Results
• Analyze Data
• Find Patterns
• Make Hyphotheses
• Predict Future Trends
• Encourage further Questioning and Research

I'm curious to see how you and your students will use this tool. I look forward to seeing your comments and reading about your experiences. 

Turned In, Missing, Late, or Graded?

Individual Views in Google Classroom for the Teacher and Students

Having several classes, subjects, and teachers, it can be a challenge for students to keep up with all the work, when it's due, etc. Google Classroom has several ways for students and teachers to quickly view an assignment(s) status.

Individual Student View Options

• From the Classroom Dashboard: Click on the Clipboard, and a list will open showing what is missing, graded, turned in, or late. 

• From the ABOUT Tab in Classroom: Click on Your Work. Students can view their assignment(s) status. 

Teacher View Options

• From the STUDENT Tab in Classroom: In the roster, click on the student's name to view the student's work page. 

New Padlet Features

I absolutely LOVE padlet. It is so versatile. Padlet is an online discussion board in which you can display information on any topic. You can post text, videos, links, and images. You can even leave a comment or rate a post.

Teacher/Students uses:

• Curate Resources
• Classroom/Student web page
• Online Information Board
• Class Syllabus/Lesson Plan
• Classroom Discussion
• Present information
• Portfolio of Work

The new features make it even more user friendly, and it's all FREE!

AND... Click the 3 dots to view even more New and Improved Options.

• Add video from your Camera
• Add audio straight from your mic.
• Add your own drawings or doodles
• Add a map location.
• Link to another Padlet.

Tech Badge Leader Board

Another Change!

Congratulations to the Mighty Goliad Eagles! They take second place honors this week on the Leader Board. Lamar still holds strong to 3rd Place. And Lake View High School is rock solid in first. 

Shout out goes to Mrs. Cuevas at Belaire. She's put the Belaire Eagles into the hunt for a place on the podium.

World Read Aloud Day

Register today for World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) on February 1^st. This is a day for students all around the world to read aloud together, share ideas and stories, and learn about others. Host an event by reading with another class or author with Skype or Google Hangout. Share your students’ love of reading by sharing your story and pictures at #WorldReadAloudDay.  For more information and to download a complete teacher guide with ideas and materials, visit litworld.org.

Here are a few resources to help you connect with other classes or authors.

Skype in the Classroom – Lesson ideas for WRAD also available.

Authors who will Skype from Kate Messner

Connected Classrooms Workshop - a Google+ Community in which educators can share their ideas on how best to utilize technology to enhance classroom curriculum and to help educators connect with other classrooms around the world. 

New School on the Podium this Week

Tech Badge Leader Board

Congratulations to the Goliad Eagles! They take 3rd place this week taking down the Glenmore Jets. But beware Lamar Lions, the Eagles are nipping at your heels. Lake View Chiefs still hold tight to their First Place honors wondering if there's a school brave enough to dethrone them. 

Will the Eagles take out the lions? Will the Jets soar high again next week? Will we see a brand new school take a spot on the podium? Tune in next week to find out. 

Celebrate! It's Back!

Google Slides Update

I know I was totally bummed when Google removed the camera from Slides. Well, I guess they heard our cries and pleas because it is BACK. Students can easily capture images by Opening Google Slides. Click Insert>Image>Camera. Snap the Picture and Insert. It's that easy.

Tech Badge Leader Board

Lake View still reigns supreme. Goliad and Lamar continue to battle for that first place spot and all its glory. Shout out to Mrs. Lewallen for putting Lincoln in the hunt for a spot on the podium. 
It's not too late to earn tech badges and show off what your students are doing in class with technology. For more information on Integration Badges, visit our Instructional Technology Website. EdTech with Howard and Feck look forward to viewing your badge requests in the new year.