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TCEA Responds: Making Copies of Google Docs

by Miguel Guhlin March 20, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

Thank you, TCEA TechNotes blog, for supplying me daily with useful tips and tricks. I love the Google templates you share. When I try to click on the link, it takes me to a Make a Copy page. Nothing happens from there. Will you please check the hyperlink? Is this normal?

-Lisa

Dear Lisa:

Thanks so much for your kind words and feedback. As you know, we work hard to create resources educators can use right away. One way to do that involves using Google (a.k.a. G Suite EDU) templates. My goal for this blog entry is that you will know what to do when you encounter some of the many shared Google Docs online. For example, Hyperdocs.co is one online space where these are shared.

Here are a few TCEA blog entries that share Google templates:

Wait, wait! I bet you are planning to click on these links. But are you ready to receive? Let’s explore how you can embrace all of this awesomeness in an informed way.

Watch the Video

You can read the blog entry, or watch this short video tutorial.

Check out even more resources online via this link; scroll down to see them

First Things First: Be Ready to Receive

Please note that templates need you to first log in with your G Suite EDU or Google account. That is, in your browser (e.g. Chrome or Chromium-based), you should have logged into a Google account. This can be a work (G Suite EDU) or personal (free Google account as part of your Gmail) account.

TCEA Responds

Anyone who has a Google account has sharing options. We can choose to share individual templates with the options shown below. If we have a LOT of templates or documents, we can share an entire folder in Google Drive. Let’s explore what each of these look like and what you can do to get what others offer.

Steps to Take

To get these templates for your own use, you will need to take these steps:

1-Log in to your Google account (school or personal)
2-Click on the links above for what you want, such as the Google Slide Scavenger Hunt link

When someone shares a Google Doc/Slides/Sheets document with you, you often have the option to go to FILE->MAKE A COPY. It looks like this:

TCEA Responds

People who share Google Docs want to make it easier for you. They don’t want you to go hunting for FILE->MAKE A COPY. They want you to get their file in one quick click. Where does the copy end up? It ends up in your Google Drive.

When someone wants to share a Google Doc/Slides/Sheets document with you, they can save it in several ways. For the links you click on, you are likely to encounter one of these three options.

Option 1: Make a Copy

When somebody shares a “MAKE A COPY” link, they are trying to save you a step. The person sharing assumes you want a copy of the document. So they take the traditional SHARE link and change one word. Instead of edit, they type in copy.

Original Share Link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SO_iWam1VQ33WU082Rj3BRsQj5PzkrC8kZ-uyLvujkM/edit?usp=sharing

TCEA Responds

In this image, you are in VIEW mode. To get a copy of this document saved to your Google Drive, you will need to go to FILE->MAKE A COPY. You can change the name at the moment you decide to make a copy, as well as save it to a specific folder in your Google Drive.

TCEA Responds

Revised link for Make a Copy version

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SO_iWam1VQ33WU082Rj3BRsQj5PzkrC8kZ-uyLvujkM/copy?usp=sharing

You can see that the ONLY change is adjusting the link to reflect the word copy instead of edit. You can see from the screenshot underneath each that you get a different result. In the image shown below, you will not see the content of the page, only the option to make a copy. This eliminates a few steps outlined above. The goal is to make the process easier on you to get a copy of this document saved to your Google Drive. Keep in mind though that this doesn’t allow you to preview the template/document before downloading a copy.

TCEA Responds

That’s it for Option A: Make a Copy. You should now have a copy of the template in your Google Drive.

Option B: Use a Template

This is another way someone who wants to share a Google document with you can use. The benefit of this option is that before you click on “USE TEMPLATE” button, you get to see a preview. This preview assists you in deciding if you are getting what you want.

This is like Make A COPY. Notice what the link appears as. As you can see, instead of the whole copy or edit area, you see template/preview. This is the key to make your own Google documents available as templates that others can get.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_he0bPcUnPbs4FLxGbHYUMcZT0ZNu-GWsL6JEvha76I/template/preview

When you click on the link, you will see the following:

The result is the same as the previous option though. When you click on USE TEMPLATE button, you will get the chance to save it in your Google Drive.

Option C: Folder/Directory of Documents

What happens when the person sharing with you has a folder (a.k.a. directory) of content to share with you in Google Drive? It may look like this:

TCEA Responds

Or, if you are NOT logged into a Google account, like this:

TCEA Responds

When you go into the folders, you will see individual documents. For example, you can see a list of infographic templates for Google Slides. There are so many documents, you may not want to grab them one at a time. What you want is the entire folder.

When you encounter a folder share like this, you will need to get a copy of the entire folder. Here’s how to do that:

TCEA Responds

As you can see, you can choose to ADD TO MY DRIVE an entire folder of documents.

These three options make it easier to get a copy of the templates shared. Remember, you must first have a Google account. You will need to log in before you click on a link to a Google Document you want to get. Once you click, realize you will encounter one of the three options discussed above. This primer on getting copies of documents should make getting TCEA templates easier.

March 20, 2020 55 comments

Ramping Up Those Old Worksheets

by Lori Gracey March 19, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

When I first began teaching, the mimeograph machine was all the rage. I well remember rushing to the teacher’s lounge to copy my worksheets, smelling the delicious (and slightly euphoria-inducing) smell from the blue ink and thinking with great delight of the peace and quiet there would be in my classroom while my students busily filled in the blanks. What I did not want to think about was the fact that, most of the time, worksheets do not really enhance learning and they are rarely engaging or empowering.

Move ahead to 2020 and the tech age and, at first glance, it would appear that worksheets are even less inviting and useful today. But with the help of a free resource for teachers, the much-maligned worksheet has a new and more powerful role in learning today.

Welcome to Wizer

Wizer gives teachers the ability to provide engaging learning through worksheets that are digital and interactive. The worksheets can include video, audio, images, and a variety of question types (multiple choice, fill in the blank, draw/label on an image, matching, and open-ended ). The worksheets can be assigned to students through Google Classroom, OneNote, or any learning management system. If you don’t use one of those tools, students can access the worksheet by going to this link and entering the pin number you give them.

Wizer worksheets can be created and completed on any computer, tablet, and device connected to the internet. Once students can access the worksheets, they have a number of tools that they can use to complete them. These include adding text, image, video, link, and audio, which means that they can record their answers, even to the open-ended questions. That’s especially useful for ESL and special needs students. And more tools are in development and will be added soon.

worksheets

Wizer Features that Teachers Will Love

You can tell that Wizer was designed with teachers in mind as it has several features that are guaranteed to save you time. The teacher can create learner profiles and then assign different worksheets for each profile easily. That allows for powerful differentiation by just clicking a button. And worksheets can be automatically checked and graded, saving you even more time. You also have the ability to provide individual feedback where needed or modify the automatic grading if necessary. There’s also a very large gallery of shared worksheets already created and ready for you to use.

Students can sign in to Wizer using Google Classroom, Edmodo, or Microsoft. They can also sign in with an email or even with just a name and password.

Pricing for Wizer

Did I mention that this fabulous tool is free to teachers??? If you want additional features like automatically importing your entire student roster or Learner Profiles Reflection questions, it’s just $69/year. The paid version also includes automatic grouping of students based on their profiles and their past performance and allowing students to select which question(s) they want to answer out of several alternatives (voice and choice).

While worksheets are not the be-all-and-end-all of great learning, they can be a useful tool. With Wizer, they can also be more engaging for students. Take a look at it today!

March 19, 2020 0 comment

Good Teaching Web 2.0 Tool

Class Discussions Gone Digital

by Miguel Guhlin March 17, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

A colleague recently posted the following request for help in finding an interactive way for his students to respond to literature questions via class discussions. He received some fascinating responses to his question. In this blog entry, I’ll try out some of the suggestions and share my thoughts about them.

“All teaching boils down to three key processes…The processes are: finding out where learners are in their learning, finding out where they are going, and finding out how to get there,” says Dylan Wiliam (2011, The Case for Formative Assessment, page 45).

Create Opportunities for Digital Class Discussions

Here’s a copy of the original request that a teacher shared:

Hi, would you happen to have ideas? I want to create opportunities for digital interaction around a short story. We’re reading the short story, and I want students to respond to the questions. Students need to be able to read each other’s responses and leave comments. I want to keep track of how many comments they leave so I can grade them. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

This teacher, whose request I’ve revised for length and clarity, is really looking for a virtual space. In this virtual space, students should have the option to post their responses to questions and should have the ability to comment on other students’ posts and responses.

The main challenge here is keeping the virtual space a safe place for learning conversations focused on the content. For K-12, the goal is to create a walled garden where students can interact. In this way, others (e.g. parents, community, strangers) don’t intrude on fragile chats.

Caution: In some districts, providing students with a virtual space is not allowed. Even when there is teacher supervision, in a secondary setting, there may be too many posts to review. That said, as teachers, we need to encourage civil discourse in our classrooms. Students’ failures to interact in an appropriate manner are opportunities for growth. Do you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Solution #1: Learning Management System (LMS)

A learning management system with a built-in discussion board is one possible response. Many schools provide teachers access to an LMS for use in their classrooms. If not, there are many other solutions you can take advantage of that are no-cost. Whether you are using Instructure’s Canvas, Schoology, Blackboard, or Moodle, solutions abound. You can even use Microsoft Teams and set up a specific area for discussion. Google Classroom may offer some opportunities as well.

One response to this teacher stated the following. I laughed when I read it because I did something like this once. Since then, I’ve learned to push for a school/district approved response. The one thing that will raise eyebrows is the following:

Get a free moodlecloud site and create a chat forum! It will do exactly what you want.. You can even make it so they can’t comment until they’ve posted their own response. Source: Kerry Crawford via Facebook group

If you are in a situation where going rogue with an LMS not under district control is okay, then options abound. You can find Moodle hosting sites everywhere with a low monthly price. Some districts or schools host Moodle instances in-house. This is great because it makes account management pretty easy.

Here’s a video overview of discussion forums in Moodle:

If you want to try this suggestion out, get yourself a “Droplet” in Digital Ocean. If you want to grow and learn more about GNU/Linux distributions, there are many you could start with (e.g. Ubuntu Linux).

Solution #2: Flipgrid

“Flipgrid? That could be fun!” says Bethany Nopajaroonsri. Would you like to try a solution that’s not text-heavy? Consider giving Flipgrid.com a try. It’s a versatile tool, cross-platform, and works great on smartphones. You can set up your Flipgrid to capture students’ responses to questions. Consider this example of Flipgrid use for Student Book Talks.

There’s no reason why a teacher couldn’t set up a Flipgrid Topic for their short story. If you want to learn more, explore Mike Tholfsen’s Wakelet collection, #FlipgridPD: Getting Started.

class discussions

One of the best aspects of this solution is that Microsoft’s sponsorship has made it completely free. And Flipgrid’s developers are conscious that their product must be K-12 friendly.

Solution #3: Padlet for Class Discussions

Need a virtual bulletin board solution? Padlet might be your answer, if you don’t mind paying almost a hundred dollars. Imagine your students posting content of all sorts, such as video, text, G Suite EDU documents, and more. Everything appears in the form of a post-it on a bulletin board. Ben Fisher describes it in this way:

Padlet is like a virtual bulletin board. Students can comment on a post you’ve made or they can make their own post on the Padlet board. It allows them to post text, images, and videos.

Padlet offers many different ways to organize content, as well as protect content. Your padlet can be as public or private as you like. As a veteran Padlet user, the only question you need ask yourself is, “Are you ready to pay $99 a year?” If so, you’re ready to get going.

class discussions

Solution #4: Verso Learning

“Check out Verso. It allows you to post a video, link, text, etc. and have students respond. They can then respond to each other’s answers. They even can upvote the responses they find helpful,” says Keith Schoch. You can read about Keith’s use of Verso Learning in his blog entry “How to Teach a Novel: How to Create Interactivity, Even Remotely” where he lists ways that teachers can use Verso to:

Build understanding of historical context of a novel
Review a concept or skill covered in class
Generate background information for a current events debate or writing
Review the steps of a process
Integrate SEL and discuss sensitive topics such as bullying
Provide alternate interpretations of classic literature
Practice inference skills
Create an online crowd-sourcing site

You will want to read his blog entry for the details. Verso’s website includes references to evidence-based, high-impact strategies. They assert they have put these together around the work of luminaries such as John Hattie, Robert Marzano, and Michael Fullan.

Watch the video appearing on this page to learn more. There’s a lot to like on the Verso website, and may well be worth a separate blog entry. There is a cost associated.

class discussions

Solution #5: Parlay Ideas

Parlay offers discussion prompts at a price. Teachers can get started with a no-cost account. You can see how it works via their website or watch video below:

As you might imagine, there are ways to use many of these digital tools to enhance class chats. You can stay old-fashioned with discussion forums (e.g. LMS-based forums) or go all in for video (e.g. Flipgrid). You can rely on Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or even G Suite EDU Slides comments. There are many choices. Remember to keep it simple and inexpensive.

March 17, 2020 7 comments

Android Google Tips and Tricks Social Studies

Celebrate Notable Women with Google’s AR App

by Miguel Guhlin March 13, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

“When women succeed, America succeeds,” asserts one Congresswoman. Women have worked to build America. But as President Jimmy Carter has said, “their contributions went unnoticed.”

Congress selected March, 1987 as the first official Women’s History Month. National Women’s History Month celebrates women so vital to the building of America. Their achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love are on proud display in March. This is true during 2020 since this year marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment (1920) granted some women the vote. To celebrate, some teachers have chosen to dress up as famous historical women. Others have staged women’s marches at school. Raising awareness of the contributions women have made is front and center.

Source: Maya Angelou as portrayed with Notable Women app

In this blog entry, we’ll explore a new technology tool, Google’s Creative Labs’ Notable Women app, that can make celebrating this and other historic events more fun.

Have access to Alexa? Learn about a different trailblazing woman every day in March for Women’s History Month. Ask “Alexa, who inspires you?”

Get free poster celebrating mighty women role models

See Kimothy Joy’s watercolor portraits of mighty women and get copies.

Resources for Teachers

Ready to teach National Women’s History month? You’re not too late, even if International Women’s History day is March 8, 2020. You have the entire month of March to celebrate the achievements of historic women. President Jimmy Carter said:

I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality– Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people. (Source: National Womens History Alliance)

The American Library Association shares their resources for this month online. They include:

notable women

Looking for lesson plans, posters, primary sources, and more? Look no further than the National Women’s History Museum website. They offer a searchable database of lesson plans, biographies, posters, and other resources. You can search via topic, theme, or resource type. Also, be sure to check out Scholastic magazine’s online articles on women’s history.

The National Education Agency also has resources organized for you. You can find them linked below:

AR/VR App: Google’s Notable Women

Want to engage students with AR/VR? You can use this Android and iOS app, Notable Women. What it does is allow you to point your smartphone or tablet at a dollar bill. The app will then replace the face of George Washington with a notable woman. Here are some of the women that may appear. You can check the website for more.

notable women

The result is startling and works even on “digital dollars,” so it’s perfect for students to use. Here’s one example (showing Sacagawea) I took with my Android phone:

notable women

Using the app is easy and students shouldn’t have any problems with it. Give it a try as part of your station rotation. Let us not forget the words of President Ronald Reagan:

“As leaders in public affairs, American women not only worked to secure their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also were principal advocates in the abolitionist, temperance, mental health reform, industrial labor and social reform movements, as well as the modern civil rights movement. Their dedication and commitment heightened awareness of our society’s needs and accelerated our common efforts to meet those needs.”

Stay connected with others who are sharing about Women’s History Month. Follow the hashtag #womenshistorymonth on Twitter.

These 6 women are just a small selection who have inspired generations of scientists. #WomensHistoryMonth #WomenInScience #SheInspiresUs pic.twitter.com/cOQcVrsy5I

— Rangam (@RangamC) March 3, 2020

March 13, 2020 0 comment

Chromebooks Content Areas Google Tips and Tricks Microsoft Tips and Tricks Professional Learning Web 2.0 Tool

Remote Learning Tools for Schools

by Miguel Guhlin March 9, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Remote learning providers are moving in a fast way to make their services more available in the wake of COVID-19. At the same time, K-16 educators and their organizations are working hard to put in place the ability to offer remote learning. In light of the prompted social distancing, this work is life-saving. Children who may carry the virus can infect vulnerable parents and grandparents. Providing at-home learning opportunities may lessen the exposure for immune-compromised individuals.

In this blog entry, we’ll explore over twenty resource links and solution providers. The goal of sharing these with you is to assist you in launching remote learning for your school or district.

This blog was last updated 08/2020 with new information and digital tools.

Resources and Assistance Abound

If you have additional resources, be sure to add a description and link in the comments section for this blog entry. In the meantime, you might want to check this School Closure Planning document via educator Nicole Zumpano. EduroLearning also offers a fantastic site replete with resources.

The CDC mentions social distancing as one of the ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

The community can take measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Currently a vaccine or drug is not available for COVID-19.

The CDC points to community-based interventions such as the following:

School dismissals
Event cancellations
Social distancing
Creating employee plans to work remotely

Social distancing is “a term applied to certain nonpharmaceutical infection control actions” (source). Public health officials take these actions to stop or slow down the spread of a disease and thus reduce virus transmission. This happens when people increase the physical distance between persons. It can also happen when you reduce the frequency of congregation in certain places such as schools and/or workplaces. Per research studies, social distancing is effective at reducing disease spread. Many universities have taken this step. K-12 campuses and districts may follow as needed.

Students Need Home Internet Access?

If low-income students need Internet access at home, consider these solutions:

Hotspot Donations and $10/Month Wireless Access for Education – With nationwide school closures due to COVID-19, educators can request wireless hotspot donations at Digital Wish, then get Mobile Beacon’s unlimited high-speed 4G LTE mobile broadband service for only $10/month. Each donated hotspot ($70 value) has a 10 hour battery life and can connect up to 10 people to the internet. Use hotspots to set up a lending pool that will provide equitable internet access for students and teachers. A one-time $18 admin fee applies for a single hotspot and the $120 full-year service subscription must be paid in advance. Learn more and get your hotspots here.

Lifeline. “Lifeline typically provides up to a $9.25 monthly discount on service for eligible low-income subscribers.” Learn more about Lifeline from this FCC.gov website.

Comcast is now offering “Internet Essentials.” Comcast is offering, effective Monday, March 16, 2020, two months free to new Internet Essentials customers. Click here for more details. Xfinity WiFi from Comcast will be available as well.

Spectrum will also offer 60 days of free internet to households with K-12 or college students who lack a Spectrum account. Their WiFi hotspots will be opened for public use. Read this ABC News article for more providers.

Another great idea is equipping your school buses with Cradlepoint WiFi and park those around the District.

Just-in-Time Online Learning Support

Many individuals, businesses and non-profits are now offering free professional learning to educators. The professional learning focuses on how to teach online. Here is a quick round-up of some of those resources:

Organizational Resources
Individual Tip Collections and Tutorials
- Emma Pass’ Online Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 is a must-read for many
- Teacher Tools and video tutorials for COVID-19 school closures.
- Kasey Bell’s Online Learning Tips
- Rushton Hurley’s website focused on emergencies and online learning

Flipgrid has curated a variety of resources for educators:

Remote Learning with Flipgrid
Learning from Home Disco Library Playlist
Add your name to the inspiring community of educators willing to help and share remote learning ideas.
Share this Family Learning post with parents or guardians looking to engage their child at home.
Help onboard your community with a Flipgrid overview session at blog.flipgrid.com/flipgridpd

Wondering what to do about students taking home a school device? You may want to watch this March 18, 2020 (on demand after date) webinar, Preparing Your District for CIPA Compliant Device Take Home.

Services Listed

How do you reduce social distancing in schools? One part of the answer involves moving teaching and learning online. This can be a challenge for schools since students and/or teachers may not yet have learned how to function online. Below are some recommendations that Cary G. Hart gleaned from international educators:

Keep it simple
Use ONE method to communicate with parents, not multiple
Use already-introduced platforms as much as possible
Train teachers now while you can
Offer tech support for teachers, students, and parents

Getting up to speed in a short time may not be possible. That aside, online learning providers have rushed to make their solutions available. Many educators are compiling and sharing resources for online learning.

In the space below, you will find the most current list of services offered in alphabetical order. You may be aware of free or almost free services like Flipgrid, Seesaw, Wakelet. Each has a set of features that is available at no cost (e.g. Flipgrid, Wakelet, Seesaw). Others (e.g. Seesaw for Schools) have a cost associated for more features.

Other video conferencing providers, such as Zoom, while not designed for school use may very well be a go-to tool that offers some free services. For example, Zoom is lifting limits for K-12 schools provided they complete an online form. Services offered include any or all the following:

Video conferencing (Google EDU, Microsoft, Zoom)
Learning management systems (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Education Perfect)
Curriculum and training (Tynker, Microsoft, G Suite EDU)
Online teaching and learning assessment tools (e.g. EdPuzzle, PearDeck, Book Creator)

Explore the services below.

Achieve 3000

Message from Achieve 3000: “As many of you are moving to or have moved to a remote learning model, we understand that a sweeping change like this brings challenges. As your partner in literacy instruction, Achieve3000 has created the Achieve3000 Remote Learning site to support your at-home learning plans. Our site provides free resources to any school in any of our partner districts. We have created solutions that are accessible to all students in your district, including digital access for all and print resources for students without internet.

Please find the link to Achieve3000 Remote Learning that you can share with your students and families. On this page, you’ll find more information about each of the solutions available.

Adobe

Adobe is now offering free home access to their Creative Cloud apps. Access will be free of charge through May 31, 2020. Students can request it online. They are also offering free 90-day access to Adobe Connect, a web conferencing solution, until July 1, 2020.

Amazon Prime Video Free Family Titles

Whether you have Amazon Prime or not, a free Amazon account gets you and your child(ren) access to free family titles. These titles are age-appropriate, include PBS Kids Series titles. These are shows your kids are sure to love (mine did!) and will help whittle away the hours.

A&M System

The Deans of Education of the A&M system would like to share some exciting news regarding free access to professional learning resources. After speaking with Veronica Calvo (Sr. Manager, Partnerships at Sanford Programs) we are pleased to announce, given the current COVID 19 situation, TCEA members are now in a position to access free educator professional learning opportunities. This access is made possible through the generosity of Mr. T Denny Sanford and the efforts of the team at National University .

Next steps

Please access the courses via this link
Once you click the access course link you will be asked to create a profile
Please ensure you identify TCEA as your organization when creating your profile. This step will enable us to monitor the number and type of modules our members are accessing
1. Note, when creating your profile, if your postcode includes letters please list the numbers as letters only as the registration software is not set up to accept letters in the postcode field.
Once you have created a profile you can immediately access the modules and sign up for webinars.
1. Sanford Harmony, is a PreK-6 social emotional learning program.
2. Sanford Inspire provides educators and pre-service educators with online professional learning for creating inspiring PreK-12 classrooms.
  1. Each module ends with a self assessment and a certificate of mastery when the user successfully completes the assessment. This is a useful tool for teacher educators who are looking for innovative ways to supplement field based learning during school closures.Harmony at Home Toolkit
    Sanford Programs has also created the Harmony at Home toolkit to ensure that parents and children continue to have high-quality learning experiences during the period of school closures. Harmony at Home provides a variety of lessons, activities, and resources from our Sanford Harmony and Sanford Inspire programs to help parents navigate the social and emotional needs of children during this difficult time. You can access the Harmony at Home toolkit via this link
    
    Next steps

If applicable, share the Harmony at Home link with your local school districts and partners
Watch the Harmony at Home training video
Review the annotated Getting Started Guide to navigating the Sanford Harmony Online Learning Portal and other materials.
Explore Everyday Practices at Home
Explore the Lessons & Activities at Home.
Register for a live training webinar

Watch this video about SEL for parents from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Audible

We know listening to stories has the same benefit as reading with one’s eyes. Audible Stories is now offering, at no charge, a collection of audio stories. Stories are organized into a variety of categories, such as the following:

Littlest Learners
Elementary
Tween
Teen
Literary Classics
Folk & Fair Tales for All

Their stories are also available in various languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian and more. No login is required.

Book Creator

One of my favorite tools for creating ebooks and comics, Book Creator offers a free version. It is augmenting its free offering with a 90-day premium feature access. They are offering the following two features at no cost:

The ability to collaborate together on books in real-time
A list of ideas for using Book Creator for remote learning

Find the list of ideas online.

BrainPop

Need some instructional materials that explain the COVID-19 virus to children? Look no further than BrainPop’s multi-lingual resources (view Spanish version) on the subject.

Bulb

bulb Digital Portfolios offers their flagship education product, bulbEd, available at no charge to educational institutions around the world. bulbEd is free until the end of summer 2020. Per this announcement,

bulb Digital Portfolios is prepared to deploy and support remote teaching and learning needs at scale. bulb’s customer care team is ready and on-call to help train administration, educators and students. bulb’s robust library of resources includes access to grade and subject-specific templates and assignments, so virtual learning experiences can be up and running in a matter of days. Mr. Goldreyer said, “bulb is an all-in-one solution for remote learning. bulbEd is accessible anywhere, anytime on any web-enabled device, iOS, and Android.” bulb is FERPA, COPPA, and GDPR compliant; safe, secure, and ad-commercial free. It also integrates with Google and Microsoft education tools along with learning management systems.

Learn more online.

Buncee Learning

Get free access to Buncee Classroom if you are in an affected area. Consider what Buncee offers:

With Buncee’s assortment of media options, creating a virtual lesson is quick and easy. Teachers can include text, video, audio, or even links to additional resources. Record your lesson using the video feature, or create an activity template for your student to complete at home. The classroom dashboard can then be utilized to share and track assignments. Teachers could also create a Buncee Board, so students can access materials, share their work, interact with their classmates, and participate in class discussions no matter where they are.

With Buncee and Microsoft Immersive Reader, teachers can ensure all students, regardless of their individual needs, can learn remotely as well. Students can use Immersive Reader to read the material at their own pace, and in a way that’s comfortable for them. Immersive Reader ensures learning is accessible for all types of learners both in the classroom and beyond. (Source: Supporting Remote Student Learning)

Canva

Canva has made available a free Education product with the world as teachers, students, and educational institutions transition to online learning during this time. This product is Canva for Education. You can check out a quick overview of C4Edu here:

Chemix Lab Diagrams

Chemix Lab Diagrams is now offering all their features for free for one month. And, they have extended their trial period for the Boost plan from seven to thirty-one days. Read this blog entry to find out how Chemix can assist you as a Physics/Chemistry teacher. Learn more about the COVID-19 related offer.

Classtag

Used by over 57,000 classrooms and 2 million parents/teachers across the U.S., Classtag is a free communication platform for schools that’s designed to boost parental engagement. Teachers can message parents directly (via SMS or web) and even translate their messages if English is the parent’s second language. Plus, it serves as a fully-functioning classroom management system.

It’s been especially useful to have during the transition to education going remote, as keeping parents and students engaged is priority number one for schools. Explore their Remote Learning resources.

Coding UnPlugged Resources

Need to teach coding but don’t have an Internet connection? Check out this Wakelet collection on the subject. You are welcome to make a copy and if you know of other resources, please share them in the comments.

Education Perfect

This New Zealand-based company offers a learning management system (LMS) at no cost to schools that is in wide use across many countries.

“As we finish our 4th week of online learning (thank you COVID-19) all I can say is EP has been a lifesaver… I can monitor students, comment on their progress and reassign tasks based upon their understanding. Brilliant.”

Learn more online at their website.

Educreations Pro

“We’re offering free Educreations Pro upgrades to teachers through May 1, 2020. You can take advantage of this offer by clicking the button below. This offer is not available for current Educreations Pro subscribers.” Want to take advantage of Educreations Pro account offer? Use this link. Note that their Pro features require an iPad. Some of Educreations Pro features include the following:

import documents, presentations, webpages, maps, and images
save unlimited drafts so you can work on multiple projects at once
5GB of cloud storage, enough to store over 150 hours of lessons
use the pointer tool to direct student attention
export your lessons as MP4 video files for uploading to other platforms

Those are in addition to their features for free accounts:

record and replay your voice, handwriting, and drawings
add typed text in a variety of colors and sizes
import content from your Google Drive, Dropbox, or the Web
draw on top of everything with the drawing tool
edit out any mistakes with the built-in video editor

If you use an iPad with your students and they have the same, then Educreations will be useful to you. One key point is that you can save your lessons as MP4 video files. Those MP4 video files can be saved online via YouTube, G Suite EDU, and other places.

EdPuzzle

Need to connect with students or insert assessments into videos you create? Some of what EdPuzzle makes possible include:

Access to more than five million videos
Ability to create your own interactive video lessons
Add questions, audio, and notes
See detailed analytics on your students’ results
Get storage space videos

EdPuzzle makes that all available and more at no cost to affected schools. Apply online to gain free access.

EPIC!

Looking for a free source of books and audio books? Check out epic! which offers free teacher accounts through June 30, 2020. It’s easy to get setup as a teacher, then add your students. Creating the students’ accounts is as easy as copying-n-pasting their names into a text box.

You can find quite a bit of content online, and your students will have easy access. Here’s some of the content, featuring audio and video books:

Flipgrid

This is a fantastic, FREE, and easy tool you can use with teachers and students to stay in contact. Above, you will find a list of some the remote learning resources Flipgrid is sharing. Flipgrid offers a one-page PDF that will help you set up Flipgrid for a remote classroom. Be sure to watch these FlipgridPD webinars to learn the basics of Flipgrid. Share this simple guide to “help the families in your community use Flipgrid to keep their children active, connected and engaged while they are home from school.”

Gale Resources

Gale is offering educators, librarians, student and parent free access to digital content and resources to enhance instruction and learning. Resources include: Interdisciplinary, curriculum-aligned resources to support online learning from pre-K through undergraduate; Live and on-demand training materials to help you optimize your existing resources; Professional development eBooks to help transition to and strengthen virtual learning and Authoritative Gale resources on health-related topics and global issues.

Access Gale resources here: https://www.gale.com/covid19support

Get More Math (GMM)

Get More Math® (GMM) is offering complimentary use of their program across the state of Texas. Teachers can assign work, monitor students in real time, send personal messages to kids as they are working online. They can also track progress. GMM is TEKS aligned grades 4 through 8, Algebra 1 and Geometry. Alignment for grade 3 and Algebra 2 is not complete. Despite that, there is quite a bit of content already available. Need a contact person? Reach out to Shelly Pelton, Account Manager, via email at spelton@getmoremath.com. You can register for a Get More Math® account.

GoNoodle

GoNoodle created a free online resource GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home. It includes premium content and learning materials including movement and mindfulness videos as well as downloadable learning resources and ideas for off-screen activities – and if you sign up for email updates, they plan to send new ideas, activities, and tools to you weekly. There’s also a Good Energy channel on all GoNoodle home apps (iOS, Android, AppleTV, Fire, Roku) where all the best GoNoodle videos can be used by kids directly. Whether it takes the form of a family dance party, a song and activity that reinforces something kids are learning at school, or a mindfulness or yoga video to help us all relieve stress and get a break from the intensity of it all – let’s all work to create Good Energy with our kids during this stressful time.

Goosechase

Goosechase is now offering free-of-charge upgrades to the Educator Plus tier of the GooseChase EDU platform until September 1, 2020 for all K-12 educators. If you are a teacher looking to utilize this upgrade to engage with students during school shutdowns, please complete the form linked here.

Grammar Check

Grammar Check offers a free, safe, and secure online tool to proofread any English text with a simple “Copy & Paste.” All texts get processed instantly and deleted immediately after processing your text. You might combine this with Hemingwayapp.com to improve your writing (or as a set of tools to share with your students).

G Suite EDU

Google is now offering free access to advanced Hangouts Meet videoconferencing capabilities. This free access will be available until July 1, 2020 and is available to all G Suite and G Suite for Education. The feature includes the following:

Support for larger meetings (up to 250 participants per call)
Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain (e.g. Ardent ISD domain or your district)
The ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive

The last piece is important since it makes it easier for schools to share content. G Suite EDU admins may find this walk-through helpful. This enables asynchronous sharing of content. This free access is rolling out now for Hangouts Meet and Google Classroom.

Internet Archive – National Emergency Library

Heard the announcement? If not, here it is:

During this unprecedented time in history, access to printed books is becoming difficult or impossible. COVID-19 is forcing students, educators, and everyday readers to rely on digital books more than ever before. That’s why the Internet Archive has temporarily suspended all waitlists, allowing you to immediately check out any of the 1.4 million books currently in our lending library. Until June 30th or the end of the US national emergency (whichever comes later), every borrowable book will be immediately accessible by anyone—creating, in effect, a National Emergency Library.

You can check out to ten of anything, “whether you need classic literature, science textbooks, genre fiction, or even just bedtime story material.” Start browsing here.

Kami App

This online services seeks to make transitioning from paper to digital easier. To achieve this, it suggests you can load any document into their system. This can include assignments, book reports, team projects, website research, homework, and surveys. Once loaded into their system, you can type, write, or draw on the document(s). You, as teacher, can share the document, embed images, comments, audio, or video clips to instruct.

To claim a free school-wide license, send an email to support@kamiapp.com. Each school license will be valid for seventy days. This license will extend Kamifor so long as schools have shut down.

Khan Academy

This provider is offering student schedules. Explore this Google Doc online.

KERA Programming

KERA is offering a new curriculum-based television lineup offering free PBS programs and digital resources aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards. The new At-Home Learning schedule will air weekdays from 6am to 6pm on KERA TV with specific blocks of time for pre-K through 12th grade levels. This special programming block also will stream live on learn.kera.org, expanding access to this free educational content and enabling students to watch the programming on mobile devices. You can find the program schedule and more information at learn.kera.org. The weekday television lineup is segmented by target grades:

6 a.m. – 8 a.m. – Programs for kids in pre-K to 3rd grade.
8 a.m. – 2 p.m. – 4th through 8th-graders.
2 p.m. – 6 p.m. – 9th through 12th graders.

In addition to the new on-air programming, KERA is sharing an At-Home Learning Toolkit, which includes a curated list of educational resources and a weekly calendar with fun and engaging KERA Kids activities for the entire family. The Toolkit includes links to subscribe to KERA’s two education email newsletters – one for parents of young children and one for educators. It also includes a link to PBS LearningMedia, a large, FREE collection of curated TEKS-aligned resources for teaching. Many of the videos, lesson plans, handouts and other materials come from great shows like NOVA, Nature, Masterpiece and Sesame Street.

Children can still watch all their favorite PBS Kids programs around the clock on KERA Kids 24/7 on digital television and channel 13.2 for over the air viewers. You can also stream PBS Kids shows anytime you want from our website. Find the KERA Kids schedule and the streaming link at kids.kera.org.

Kialo Edu

Kialo Edu is a custom version of Kialo (http://kialo-edu.com/), the world’s largest argument mapping and debate site, specifically designed for classroom use. Its clear, visually compelling format makes it easy to follow the logical structure of a discussion and facilitates thoughtful collaboration. Kialo’s mission is to promote well-reasoned discussion online, and to that end, Kialo is free for educators to use. Check out their Twitter page to hear what teachers have to say about Kialo Edu.

Legends of Learning

Legends of Learning offers 2,000 3rd through 8th-grade math and science games and simulations correlated to state standards. Teachers create playlists of games based on standards and students work through completing each one, while the teacher receives real-time data from each student. Using our various assignment options, teachers can create custom playlists, or have a playlist built for them with a top-rated game.

The basic Legends of Learning site is always free. We are offering free access to all premium features for schools closed due to the outbreak for the duration of their closure. This includes assigning an unlimited number of assignments, creating customized assessments for students, and integration with Google Classroom, Clever, Classlink, or Schoology.

Logo Design

This site shares share “twenty-six of the most fantastic and productive graphic design resources that will keep the kids engaged when you can’t go out due the coronavirus pandemic (or otherwise). These will help them learn something new, and may enable them to develop a new hobby or think of a future career choice. Learn more online.

MackinVIA

MackinVIA has compiled free content, helpful videos, links, downloadable resources and more to help you with this distance learning transition. MackinVIA offers two main resources:

Be sure to review their resources.

Merge Cubes

Students can print and build their own paper Merge Cube, then download Merge EDU apps for hands-on augmented reality experiences that kids and parents will love. Merge products are simple and easy to use, and even younger students can complete activities with accessibility features like Immersive Reader. With over 10 different languages, students from all over the world can continue learning wherever they are. Access Remote Learning with Merge online.

Microsoft

The Microsoft Teams for Education offering provides schools with an online classroom space that is free for schools and universities. What’s more, Microsoft has some on-demand webinars you can watch. Each showcases Microsoft Teams as a way to support student-teacher, student-student interactions. You will need to register to watch the recording.

To gain access, your school district will need to deploy Office 365 A1 license (which is free to education). Once your district enables MS Teams, you can access it at https://teams.microsoft.com. Learn more about Teams availability for schools and businesses.

MobyMax

MobyMax is offering remote learning guides and free webinars on how to teach from home. They are also offering:

MobyMax is offering free licenses for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year to districts and schools that would like to leverage Moby as a remote learning resource while their schools are closed.

Here’s the list of resources you can explore at no charge:

Part 1: Quick Guide to Using Moby from Home (English) (Spanish)
Part 2: Monitoring Usage and Setting Goals tutorial
Part 3: Communicating with students
Video 1 – How to create assignments for your students at home
Video 2 – How to prepare and send a video lesson to your students at home

MobyMax hopes you find these resources useful during this time.

MyList

Teachers can create a personal list of the online learning tools they are using, add notes for each tool and publish it out to parents. It is really simple to use: they search a library of 7,000+ edtech tools, click the “add” button, add any notes (optional), publish, and then share. See it online.

NearPod

Need access to a teaching, learning, and assessment platform? NearPod is another digital tool making itself available to affected schools. NearPod makes it easy to create interactive lessons, create quizzes, polls, and more. It integrates with Google Slides and you can synchronize lesson slides across all remote learners. It’s a must-have tool in your toolkit and one of my favorites. You can learn more about it online.

Northwestern University and Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research

Elementary educators looking for a free resource to teach students about the Coronavirus and COVID-19 will have help from a zany book character named Mrs. Can. Thanks to a grant from Northwestern University and its Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research, a free download of “The Class That Can: Coronavirus” will be available to teachers nationwide, along with a virtual resource to libraries and school systems by request.

The book features third graders from a fictional “Class That Can” who are learning from home because of the Coronavirus. The students are excited when their teacher, Mrs. Can, introduces them via computer to her friends, Dr. Kenneth Fox and Dr. Ruchi Gupta, both of whom are real-life, seasoned pediatricians.

“Teachers create meaning for students, and this resource can be a powerful part of their toolkit as they boldly innovate in the age of COVID,” says Dr. Fox, a pediatrician for more than 30 years and Chief Health Officer of Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district. “The Class That Can: Coronavirus is written in a fun, honest voice that kids can understand and that our times recommend.”

Get the book online.

OneScreen Hype with Zuni Learning Tree

Get free-of-cost access to the powerful distance and blended learning package, OneScreen Hype with Zuni Learning Tree. It is available to any public or private school in the United States wanting to take their classes online. The software allows teachers to conduct online video classes for their students ( just like Zoom), but comes with additional features and educational resources for educators.

OTIS For Educators

Need free professional learning on Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams? OTIS for Educators has made their professional development content available for no-cost to teachers on an individual basis or schools. Here’s their announcement:

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are making all of our PD courses FREE to help schools implement distance learning and online professional development. Individual teachers, sign up for a FREE Basic account. You will be automatically upgraded to a full subscription for free.

Schools fill out the following information and we will assist you with setting up your free accounts. If you need immediate assistance setting up an account for your school, please call 877.455.9369

Learn more online.

PearDeck

PearDeck makes adding interactivity to Google Slides easier. It’s integrated with G Suite EDU already. This makes it easy to share and save work via Google Classroom. You can get free access to PearDeck online. They offer 30-days free to all new users. They extend that with a 90-day premium access offer. You can request individual or district access via their online forms. They are now hosting live, daily remote learning webinars.

PenPal Schools

PenPal Schools is offering free access for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. With schools closing around the world, parents are scrambling to find online learning resources that are effective and engaging. Isolated learning software doesn’t cut it – students need to be connected to be engaged. PenPal Schools is so engaging that we have quickly grown to nearly half a million students in 150 countries. Teachers and parents are invited to enroll for free at
penpalschools.com. PenPal Schools connects students from around the world to learn together! Students collaborate through online projects ranging from human rights and the environment to fake news and robotics, all while practicing literacy, technology and social-emotional skills.

Promethean Online Learning

Promethean has free resources that they are offering teachers. Schools can use their free software, ClassFlow, to communicate and share resources with their students. See those resources online.

Ranger Rick Magazine

Need some exciting reading material? One of my childhood favorites was the Ranger Rick Magazine. They are offering three months of free access to all games, jokes, videos, awesome animal articles. This offer is good through June 30, 2020. Sign up online.

Seesaw

Seesaw offers incredible, age-appropriate tools that teachers can use with students and parents. Learn about their remote learning offerings. Per Seesaw’s website:

Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links.

Seesaw is easy to use and get started with. It offers many powerful features for free, even more at cost. Teachers can get started here. Here is a quick tutorial video for home learning codes for all students in your class.

Showbie

Showbie is a real-time application for communication and assessment tool. Showbie is providing free additional licenses to existing customers. These additional licenses cover all staff and students on Showbie Pro and Socrative Pro through July 31, 2020. For non-customers, free access to Showbie Pro and Socrative Pro will be provided through July 31, 2020.

To take advantage of this opportunity, please have your school or district administrator in charge of your COVID-19 response plan, complete this application form. Our team will get back to you within one business day with setup instructions and next steps.

This tool works on desktop/laptop computers, tablets, iPads, and/or mobile phones.

Slido

“We have just launched Slido for Education (with new integrations with PowerPoint and Zoom Webinar) which will be free for all teachers and students until July 1st,” says Juraj Pal, Slido. Slido already integrates with Google Slides. What is Slido? It is a tool designed to assist lecturers. The goal is keep them connected during virtual or live classes. It powers two-way interactions. Learn more about Slido for Education, a new offering, online.

STEM Fuse

STEM Fuse is offering their entire suite of distance learning and training resources at no cost. All courses are CSTA aligned and very easy for teachers to use. Learn more about it in their guidebook. At this link, you will find a form that teachers can use to automatically get access to the course(s) of their choosing.

Texthelp

Texthelp is currently providing FREE access for students, teachers, and parents to Fluency Tutor for Google Chrome through the end of the school year. With Fluency Tutor teachers can assign reading passages from over 500 built-in, leveled content pieces and students can practice reading aloud, building fluency and understanding, before submitting their recordings to their teacher. And because it’s web-based, it’s great for remote learning.

If you’d like to learn more about Fluency Tutor, you can visit them online.

Tynker for Schools

Need access to a how-to-code curriculum for your students to engage in at home? You will want to explore Tynker for Schools. They are making their offer available to all K-12 schools. You can read their announcement:

If your school or district is planning a closure for preventative health-related reasons, please complete this form to get full access to the entire Tynker curriculum and platform at no cost. This will give you and your students access to our self-paced, on-demand courses until May 2020, but we will happily extend this offer until your school reopens.

In addition to our existing free online professional development, we will be running a series of webinars to train teachers on how to use Tynker in a remote learning environment. Please visit our training page for details and schedules.

This is a generous offer of accessible curriculum and training for schools.

WriteReader Lesson Plan and Book Templates

WriteReader, which is free, is offering lesson plans and book templates. Teachers can use these to enhance how they are planning activities for students stuck at home during COVID-19.

Xtensio

If you want to make your teaching easy and streamline during COVID 19, use Xtension. Using this, you can create, manage, and present the course syllabus, and with ease sharing features, share it with every student.

Furthermore, to make studies intuitive and interesting for kids, you can create stunning presentations with images and videos using this tool. Xtensio also allows students to study with their fellow mates under one team space. The best part, its extremely secure, as its plans include 128 bit SSL encryption and backups. This means you can add passwords to turn on/off links.

Get started with Xtensio.

Vook

Teachers get a year free of access to Vook. This is also open to homeschool educators. From their website:

“Vooks brings children’s books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story. The ad-free platform features a variety of titles that have been engaging students all across the world. Whether being used as part of the lesson or to wind class down, Vooks is a fun and versatile tool for the classroom.

Learn more about Vook content:

Learn From Home Club

Self-serve learning platforms Codecademy, Duolingo, Quizlet, Skillshare, and Brainly have teamed up to create the Learn From Home Club – a joint offering of free learning resources for teachers and students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (offer details for each company are available at the link provided). The offering was announced Monday, April 6, 2020 in a tweet by Codecademy CEO Zach Sims. The participating education companies have a combined reach of nearly 600 million users. The participating companies are as follows:

Codecademy is a platform for learning programming, web development, data science and other technical skills online. They have given away over 100,000 free Codecademy Pro scholarships to students so far.
Skillshare is an online learning community where millions come together to take the next step in their creative journey.
Quizlet provides free study tools including flashcards, practice questions and games for students and their teachers. Choose from 400 million study sets or create your own.
Duolingo is the world’s most popular language-learning platform, with the mission of making education free and accessible for everyone.
Brainly offers a free learning platform, where students and parents get homework and study help from peers and experts. Brainly is democratizing access to education and helps students answer questions. Students from anywhere can ask about their doubts and get a step-by-step explanation from others.

As part of the offering, Codecademy will be hosting Learn From Home Day on April 10 at 10 AM Eastern. The day will be marked with a free educational web conference dedicated to togetherness and self-betterment through learning online. Throughout the day, attendees will join interactive breakout sessions with Codecademy and other participating companies.

Powerful Tools At Hand

These are all powerful tools made available for educators. Whether COVID-19 prompts social distancing in your area, you should know what tools work best. Be sure to coordinate with other educators and school administrators and decide together how to best approach teleschooling and remote learning. Looking for more resources? Check out Loreen A. Sullivan’s Wakelet collection. You may also find Clay Smith’s collection of interest. Finally, this Google Doc may be of interest. It shows education companies offering free subscriptions.

“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate” -M. Leavitt

Note: This blog has been updated to reflect new services as of 3/14/2020. Check back since new services will continue to be added as we become aware of them.

March 9, 2020 12 comments

Content Areas Good Teaching

How to Create a Choice Board

by Miguel Guhlin March 7, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Creating a choice board has never been easier than it is now with digital tools. At the recent TCEA 2020 Convention & Exposition, my colleagues Peggy Reimers, Diana Benner, and I shared a little of what we know. We set out to curate a variety of resources and present examples with templates. Maximizing student choice remains an important tenet of learning. Come along, if you like, and learn more about choice boards. There’s a Wakelet of resources provided, too.

What Is a Choice Board?

A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose how they will learn a concept. Usually a choice board includes these aspects:

9-square grid
Each square has an activity
Each activity might relate to one of the multiple intelligences
Level of difficulty can vary or stay consistent throughout the board

Hattie’s Mindset

One of the powerful aspects of strategies that work is how they connect to the ways humans learn. John Hattie (Visible Learning, 2009) says the following:

“Learning progressions ensure that appropriately higher expectations of challenges are provided to students…there is not one right trajectory of progress for all students.

Instead, it is more critical to analyse closely how students progress….there is also the question of how to move each student forward from wherever they start through these levels of achievement….”

The money quote here is, “There is not one right trajectory of progress for all students.” Educational research clearly shows that choice leads to more confident, capable, and interested students. The classic article “Choices for Children” (Alfie Kohn) cites relevant findings that include:

Giving students choice in learning tasks led to greater task completion in less time.
Students asked to write up chemistry problems without step-by-step instructions completed better write-ups. What’s more, they remembered the material better. This is no surprise given generative note-taking (d=.51) research.

Put in a simple way, student choice, when implemented in the right way, works. Choice boards are one way to do it right.

How to Create a Choice Board

Now that you’re convinced, let’s revisit the choice board creation process. The process you choose reflects what you know and how you connect ideas and information. Some steps you can follow:

Choose the target concept/standard .
Outline or draw out your concept map.
Make a list of discrete ideas/skills/strategies.
Connect those to modalities that meet the needs of different students.
Design the choice board in your tool of choice.

Ready to give it a try?

Some Examples and Templates

Here are some examples with templates, where appropriate.


Google Slides Templates (Source)	Google Drawings Template	Wakelet Example	Microsoft OneNote

Take advantage of digital tools to empower self-directed learning choices for students. No child follows in another’s footsteps. The changes exist, even if we can’t see them. Choice boards are one way to scaffold their learning journey.

References and Resources

All references and resources for links above appear in the companion Wakelet collection.

Want to learn even more about Choice Boards? Take the TCEA course: Choice Boards for Educators.

March 7, 2020 1 comment

Content Areas CTO/CIO Good Teaching

Teleschool Ready? Learning in the Time of COVID-19

by Miguel Guhlin March 3, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

“[Parents should] ask schools, are there plans for teleschool?” says a CDC representative. An inconvenient truth has pushed its way into our consciousness. No, I’m not speaking of climate change. The inconvenient facts are that schools may need to close for an extended time. Consider this news (edited) that appeared recently:

Dr Messonier said she called her children’s school. She asked if there are plans for tele-schooling if necessary. She recommended parents do the same.

Source: Edited for readability. Daily Mail, available 2/27/2020

While the COVID-19 frenzy may prove to be a non-starter here in the United States, the ability to provide learning during a time when a school’s physical buildings are not available is critical. (Do you remember hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey, all of which had a big impact on some Texas districts’ ability to hold school?)

Virtual learning, distance learning, and blended learning are all familiar terms to us. While Dr. Nancy Messonier (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) may have used a term we’re unfamiliar with, her meaning is clear. Schools may soon need to rely on strategies few educators are currently comfortable with. Are students equipped for at-home learning? Is your district ready for teleschool?

Be sure to read the companion blog entry, Remote Learning Tools for Schools.

Gauging Teleschool Readiness

How do you decide if teachers and students have what they need to teleschool? One way is to ask how other educational institutions are approaching it. No doubt, some schools will resort to make-up days when the pandemic winds down. The problem is, no one knows how long that will be. Like other disasters that schools face, if you don’t have preparations set up prior, it’s too late when the disaster hits. So this may be your district’s wake-up call. Take a moment to gauge how prepared you are.

Join us for a free-to-anyone Zoom Discussion on this important topic on Monday, March 9, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Central. We invite schools at all stages to jump in and share how they might engage in teleschooling if the need arises. In addition, a TCEA Lunch and Learn on Blended Learning Made Easy takes place March 4, 2020 at 11:45 a.m. CDT. You can also read the TCEA TechNotes blog’s blended learning archives for more insights now.

For New York University’s Shanghai campus, professors worked to meet students’ needs. They relied on several resources to make the job easier:

A plan to do the following:
- Move face-to-face content into online format
- Communicate via social media about what is happening
Website(s) to address questions and support students and parents who might have questions
A range of digital tools including:
- Learning management systems (LMSs)
- Video conferencing tools (e.g. Zoom, Adobe Connect) to ease communication with educators
- Messaging platforms (e.g. email, social media-like tools)
Pre-created videos on subjects a professor might lecture on
Online assessments

Reviewing that list of plans and resources, we can start to come up with a checklist of what K-12 schools can do.

Formulating the Checklist

Checklists for blended learning abound. A two-second web search will get you started. What are some specific steps your organization is prepared to take? Consider doing the following in a quick, methodical manner. To quote an old surgeon’s saying, “Go slow now so you can go fast later.”

Assessment of the District’s Readiness

How much of your K-12 curriculum and lessons are available in digital format for students? This would include videos, activities, assessments, etc.
How much digitized content exists in a learning management system? That is, a tool like Canvas, Classroom (Google), Schoology, or Teams (Microsoft)?
Do you have a team of educators who could digitize content and arrange it in an LMS?
What grade levels would be most critical to begin with?
What budget do you have available to buy pre-packaged content or get a team to work after hours? Will any YouTube or Khan Academy videos be usable under fair use?
How many teachers on staff could organize a month’s worth of content for online consumption?
Do teachers and students have necessary connectivity and devices to access content and complete assessments?
Create a “who would do what by when” task chart for all project aspects and how they will report completion of the task.

Things the Staff Should Do

Organize small teams to digitize content and decide what’s the most important to focus on
Decide what grade levels and content areas/subjects have priority
Streamline lessons and activities to use high-effect size strategies. Be repetitive in the use of the same strategies across lessons. Find a chart online here.
Figure out how to best make Pre-AP and Advanced Placement (AP) courses self-paced
Invite a core team of educators to create content in five to 10-minute increments
Put standard modifications for special education in place with specific suggestions for parents
Create a school hours schedule students can follow while at home
Assign two teachers by campus to monitor online during the workday; they would work from home

Resources Needed for Parents

Create a website that shares critical information about the district’s efforts
Include a sample lesson that shows what content will be available for students
Make recommendations about internet bandwidth and devices for homes that lack access
Articulate the process for checking out equipment
Provide a list of locations that provide internet access. These should be accessible from inside a car (e.g. parking outside library or school building)

Resources Needed for Students

Create a video of how to navigate online modules
Encourage student reflection and feedback on online modules
Engage students with hands-on projects when possible

Bigger Fish to Fry

While it’s easy to say, “There are bigger fish to fry right now and we need to let people focus on that,” planning on how you will provide a stable learning environment in the midst of a crisis is critical. Use the technologies you have to connect with children and parents in a fresh way and ensure that education moves forward.

March 3, 2020 3 comments

Chromebooks Special Needs

Built-In Chromebook Accessibility Features

by Diana Benner February 24, 2020

written by Diana Benner

Chromebooks are so powerful that they come with built-in accessibility features right out of the box. In order to unlock learning experiences for students with diverse needs, abilities, and learning preferences, try some of the accessibility features listed below.

Increase the Size of the Browser Content

Press Ctrl + Plus (+) to increase the size of the browser content. Ctrl + Minus (-) will decrease the size and Ctrl + 0 will reset it. The rest of the desktop will be unaffected. (This is great when you want to highlight a particular section of a website or even for those of us with “older eyes.”)

Increase the Size of All Items

Press Ctrl+Shift+Plus (+) to increase the size of the browser content. Note that the status tray and tab strip enlarge, too. Ctrl+Shift+Minus (-) will decrease the size.

Turn on the Built-In Full-Screen Magnifier

To turn on the magnifier, click the snowman (three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the Chrome browser) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features (under Accessibility category) > Enable Screen Magnifier. Pressing Ctrl + Search + M will also get the magnifier to appear. To adjust the magnifier, hold Ctrl+Alt and scroll two fingers on the touch pad.

Use High Contrast Mode

To make the screen a little bit easier to see, use High Contrast Mode which inverts all colors. To enable this, click the snowman (three dots) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features > Use High Contrast Mode. Pressing Ctrl + Search + H will also toggle the contrast on and off.

Adjust Mouse Cursor

Some students may prefer a larger mouse cursor. To enable this, click the snowman (three dots) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features > Show Large Mouse Cursor.

Highlight the Mouse Cursor When Moving

Colored circles can highlight the mouse cursor when it’s moving on the screen. To enable this, click the snowman (three dots) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features > Highlight the Mouse Cursor When It’s Moving.

Hear Text Read Aloud

When your students want to hear certain words or passages, all they have to do is highlight what they want to hear and then press Search+S once Hear Text Read Aloud is enabled. To enable this, click the snowman (three dots) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features > Enable Select-to-Speak. Once enabled, you will also notice a small speaker icon appear in the status tray. Students can click the speaker icon to select text that they want to hear.

The built-in ChromeVox screen reader makes everything accessible using synthesized speech. Press Ctrl+Alt+Z to enable or disable it at any time.

Enable Dictation

It might be easier for students to speak into any text field instead of typing. To enable dictation, click the snowman (three dots) > Settings > Advanced > Manage Accessibility Features > Enable Dictation. Once enabled, you will notice a microphone icon appear in the status tray. Students can then place their cursor in a text field, click the microphone icon, and begin speaking. Pressing Search + D will also enable the microphone.

Chromebooks help extend and expand student learning experiences, including those with disabilities and diverse approaches to learning. To learn more about accessibility in Google for Education products, click here. In addition, check out some of these TCEA TechNotes blog posts on accessibility.

February 24, 2020 0 comment

Content Areas ELAR English Language Arts Reading Writing

Favorite ELA Resources from Our Members

by Lori Gracey February 19, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

We asked our TCEA members to share their favorite reading and writing websites, apps, or tools to use for student learning and would like to share that great list with you. Feel free to add your favorite ELA resources at the bottom!

ReadWriteThink – Free website for grades K-12 that focuses on all things dealing with literacy and ELA and includes lessons, interactives, calendar activities, and more
Newsela and ReadWorks – While only some of the content provided is free, they both provide Lexile levels, word counts, and vocabulary.
Epic! for Educators – Thousands of books to read; free for teachers and librarians
Wonderopolis – Features Daily Wonders with short summaries and videos for students
Book Creator – Online creation and publishing tool that works on web-based devices (including Chromebooks) or as an app on iPad; not free
NoRedInk – Builds stronger writers through interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises, and actionable data; can group by grade bands K-3, 4-6, 7-9 , 10-12
Actively Learn – Digital reading platform with ability to scaffold; free and premium plans
Literator – This app for iOS and Google helps teachers track their students’ reading success; this is basically a digital binder for guided reading groups and conferring.
Automatic Readability Checker – Great to use with students who paste their written text in and receive the number of sentences, words, syllables, and characters in their sample. The program then takes the output of these numbers and plugs them into seven popular readability formulas that let them know the reading level and grade level of the text.
WriteReader – Designed for K-2 students with an easy interface, an uncomplicated student login process, and space for both students and teachers to create/edit work
The Literacy Shed – A great site full of short films and images that connect to so many literary elements taught in ELA. Scarlett is one of my favorite new ones added in the Inspiration Shed. It has wonderful writing prompts too. This site also has the Mysteries of Harris Burdick with great lesson ideas in the Mystery Shed. My students also really liked Alma in the Ghostly Shed. Titanium in the Music Video has some great inference opportunities. You need to fully preview anything from the Literacy Shed as some can be pretty out there. The Lighthouse is a shed by itself, but great for teaching plot.
Storybird – The vibrancy of the images and the simplicity of static font sizes and styles makes the product publisher ready.
Phonics Hero – Builds from sounds to single words and then sentences, with children making daily leaps toward conquering reading and spelling; 7-day free trial
Flipgrid – Great for book talks
Pear Deck Addon for Google Slides – If you haven’t used it, it is similar to Nearpod and its drawing feature allows students to annotate text and respond to readings all in the same presentation; free and premium plans
The Writing Center – Perfect for secondary students who need additional writing help; includes handouts and videos for virtually every writing issue your students could come across
Crash Course – These YouTube videos are engaging and great for teaching literary themes and important works.
Big List of Websites for Elementary Teachers – Check out all of the resources for ELA for elementary teachers.

February 19, 2020 0 comment

Google Tips and Tricks

Amazing Google Workspace for EDU Templates

by Miguel Guhlin February 17, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Looking for G Suite educational fun? Then you’ll want to come along on this blog entry featuring amazing G Suite templates. The takeaways come from the Teachers Using Google Suite for Education group. I always learn something new and thought I’d share some of those takeaways with you.

G Suite Template #1: Meme Generator

Need a way to enhance the modality effect (.55 effect size) in your classroom with visuals? Use a meme generator. You may recall I wrote about meme generators before. In my blog entry, ESL/ELL Playing with Words, I said:

To help…students with vocabulary development, have them construct memes. A meme is a cute photo or picture with humorous words. The more popular memes quickly become Internet sensations. Memes can be ideas, values, or behaviors that are contagious. Pair quotes with pop culture images and you get a meme that must be shared. Meme quote generators help students engage in language play. Deepen their experiences with interpretation, reasoning, and inferential thinking.

“My students and I frequently use memes to reflect on our learning experiences,” says Steve Wick. Steve Wick (@wickededtech) has put together or developed these using Google Drawings. The idea is quite clever, as Steve has put several backgrounds into Drawings. You may want to set aside time to explore Steve’s collection of Google Drawing templates.

Students/staff just need to drag the image over, then adjust the text. Get access to Steve’s Meme Generator II Template for Google Drawings. He includes some fascinating directions and an activity.

G Suite Template #2: Dog Bones

“This template is PAW-some,” says Kris Szajner (@kszajner). The purpose of this template is to support addition and subtraction. Students add or subtract bones to the presentation to match a changing number.

How could you encourage simple math with G Suite EDU tools?

G Suite Template #3: Slides Timer

Need an easy way to add timers to your Google Slides? ClayCodes.org offers a free extension, Slides Timer. It “brings timers to life when it appears on presented slides.” You can use text placeholders (e.g. <<0:00+, <a rel=”noreferrer noopener” href=”http://<5:00->, <) to insert a timer where you want. This means that if you want a five-minute count down, you would type <a rel=”noreferrer noopener” href=”http://<5:00>.

While it’s easy to open a Google Search window with a timer or view a YouTube video, this offers another fun option.

G Suite Template #4: Animal Research Project

“The template is perfect for newer researchers,” says Sarah Kiefer (@kiefersj). Intended for younger students, the template offers a nice, easy to navigate space that students can use to organize their research.

Looking for more templates like this one? Be sure to visit Sarah’s Templates for Teachers website.

G Suite Template #5: Build Data Dashboards with Google

Need to build a data dashboard, but not sure how to use a high-powered tool? Dr. Wanda Terral (@wterral) offers up this Google Slides template. In her presentation, she suggests that we do something different with our data by turning our data into informative dashboards and reports. The Google Data Studio is free and available online.

If you are looking for even more G Suite templates, be sure to check out these.

There you go; five amazing takeaway templates you can use to get started. Each opens a door to what is possible with G Suite EDU tools. Time to walk on through the door.

February 17, 2020 0 comment

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Dear TCEA Responds:

-Lisa

Dear Lisa:

Watch the Video

First Things First: Be Ready to Receive

Sharing Options

Steps to Take

Option 1: Make a Copy

Option B: Use a Template

Option C: Folder/Directory of Documents

Welcome to Wizer

Wizer Features that Teachers Will Love

Pricing for Wizer

Create Opportunities for Digital Class Discussions

Solution #1: Learning Management System (LMS)

Solution #2: Flipgrid

Solution #3: Padlet for Class Discussions

Solution #4: Verso Learning

Solution #5: Parlay Ideas

Resources for Teachers

AR/VR App: Google’s Notable Women

This blog was last updated 08/2020 with new information and digital tools.

Resources and Assistance Abound

Social Distancing: What Is It?

Students Need Home Internet Access?

Just-in-Time Online Learning Support

Services Listed

Achieve 3000

Adobe

Amazon Prime Video Free Family Titles

A&M System

Audible

Book Creator

BrainPop

Bulb

Buncee Learning

Canva

Chemix Lab Diagrams

Classtag

Coding UnPlugged Resources

Education Perfect

Educreations Pro

EdPuzzle

EPIC!

Flipgrid

Gale Resources

Get More Math (GMM)

GoNoodle

Goosechase

Grammar Check

G Suite EDU

Internet Archive – National Emergency Library

Kami App

Khan Academy

KERA Programming

Kialo Edu

Logo Design

MackinVIA

Merge Cubes

Microsoft

MobyMax

MyList

NearPod

Northwestern University and Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research

OneScreen Hype with Zuni Learning Tree

OTIS For Educators

PearDeck

PenPal Schools

Promethean Online Learning

Ranger Rick Magazine

Seesaw

Showbie

Slido

STEM Fuse

Texthelp

Tynker for Schools

WriteReader Lesson Plan and Book Templates

Xtensio

Vook