Useful links

   by  Ken Whytock 

• 6 of the Best Hidden Features in Google Chrome – The Gooru Best Resources for Google Apps “Google Chrome is actually much more than just a web browser. Google has tucked away a lot of hidden functionalities into the Chrome browser. Jotting notes on a built in notepad, playing a dinosaur themed browser game when the wifi is out, and even finding your lost cell phone on a Google map, are just a couple of the cool things most people can do. These are six of our favorite hidden Chrome tricks you can try out right now”

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two Chrome Extensions That Can Help You Stay on Task A couple of Chrome extensions explained here that that Richard Byrne uses when he finds himself falling into social media vortex and not being as productive as he should be. These extensions are equally useful to students as they are to adults.

• Supporting the Teacher Maker Movement | Edutopia The post offers eight ways to support teachers with the emphasis on what can principals do to support the teachers who want to develop curriculum. “To implement true, rigorous units you need eager, innovative teachers and supportive principals. “

• 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom

• ISTE 2015 Panel |Finding The Right Tool for Digital Classrooms

• The Ultimate Directory Of Free Image Sources – The Edublogger “sources for free images and organizing them in such a way as to help you find what you’re looking for. Here are the criteria we’ve examined: Subjects: Does a site focus on specific genres of images, or is it a mass collection of various image types? High Resolution: Lots of great image resources emerged in the pre-Web 2.0 phase, but it wasn’t until bandwidth dramatically increased that allowed for the uploading of much higher resolution images suitable for editing and printing. License: The licenses vary extremely from source to source. Some are listed as Creative Commons (with variations on attribution and availability for commercial use), others are Public Domain, and still others have unique licenses that maintain copyright while allowing users to download or embed photographs. To better understand Creative Commons licenses, check out our post on Images, Copyright, & Creative Commons. Safety: Government sites and many specific subject collections are extremely safe for students to use. But before you start using one of these sites for student blogging, check out our safety note and examine the site to see if you find it appropriate for students. Some sites are terrible for filtering out inappropriate con”

• Block Party: Legos in the Library | School Library Journal Another reflection on the why and how of a lego club run from the library. “Playing with Legos offers them something physical, something imaginative, and something mechanical. And, of course, they love the challenge of building on a different theme each time we meet. Little do these boys know that there’s an ulterior motive-to get them to read. What’s the connection between Legos and books, you ask? Promoting play contributes to early literacy development by increasing attention span, memory, creativity, and language and vocabulary skills. It also lays the foundation for logical mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning, and problem solving-things they’ll carry with them throughout their school years, says “Play = Learning,” a recent study by Dorothy Singer, a senior research scientist at Yale University’s Department of Psychology and Child Study Center.”

• Lego Movie Review & 10 Lego Activities for Kids – In The Playroom

• Two Ways to Build a Rubber Band Powered Lego Car – Frugal Fun For Boys “Here’s a fun contraption to build out of Lego bricks – a rubber band powered Lego car!  Aidan (11) and I have two different versions to show you, and hopefully these will inspire the builders at your house to create their own!  This would also be a great project for a Lego club”

• Two Ways to Build a Lego Catapult – Frugal Fun For Boys A simple but effective Lego challenge.

• Lego Challenge Game & Lego Themed Snacks – Sunshine and Hurricanes “Kids of all ages can form teams or work individually to complete the challenges outlined on the free, printable cards we’re offering at the end of this post! We’ve got a couple versions of the cards. One set incorporates vocabulary words as descriptions of the challenge to add an educational component for those looking to combine learning with fun! The second set of cards include the same challenges, but we’ve removed the vocabulary words to make it easier to play the game across age groups. After printing the cards on heavy cardstock, cut them apart and stack them into a pile or toss in an empty container for kids to draw from. We had all the kids form a circle and emptied a bin of basic Lego pieces into the center. Next, have them choose from the top of the deck or the container, read the challenge aloud, assign a time period to complete it (10-15 minutes seemed to work best for our group) and have everyone get started!”

• iPad Literacy Stations ~ Mrs.Wideen’s Blog I liked this for the Lego Creation Stationhowever there are more ideas here. “At this station, I have pre packaged 4 different ziplock bags of 100 legos each.  Students will choose the lego bag, and take a planning sheet.  Students are asked to draw and write about what they are planning to create.  (The boys in my class are crazy about lego so I thought this would be a great motivator for them.)  Students then will build their creation using their blueprint.  When they are finished, they will take a picture of their creation, add it to the class book that I have created on the Book Creator App and write a summary of their creation and how it compared to what they had originally planned.”

• The Return of Lego Fun Friday! – Frugal Fun For Boys Some great ideas providing themes/building challenges that could be used with a Lego Club. “Lego Fun Friday is a twice-a-month feature.  Each time, we share photos from the building challenge and then announce the next challenge to take place in two weeks.  “

• The Show Me Librarian: How to Host a Lego Club The post offers a how-to by documenting how it runs in the author’s own library. “Lego Club is engaging for kids of all ages, easy to manage from a staff perspective, and enjoyable for everyone involved. I think everyone should seriously consider hosting a Lego Club at the library. “

• Free LEGO Printables for Upper Elementary Homeschool Encouragement “Upper Elementary Free LEGO Printables. Seventeen amazing free LEGO printables or printable sets “

• NEA Approves National School Library Study | School Library Journal It will be interesting to see the research findings and some hard data to support library services. “The National Education Association (NEA) is set to launch a study to measure student access to school librarians and libraries. The project was approved by its Representative Assembly at the organization’s annual meeting that just ended in Orlando, FL. The study will examine issues around school libraries and staffing, from current state laws and the requirements they lay out for schools to the ratio of “professionally qualified school librarians to student, by state,” according to NEA’s web site. The educational advocacy group will also look at additional topics, including school library closings—how many, the grade levels at schools affected by shuttered libraries, as well as school librarian positions that have been lost.”

• The Book Addict’s GUIDE to paranormal, sci-fi, & fantasy! “Another Book Addict’s GUIDE. She started with just straight paranormal, but mixed in some sci-fi, some fantasy, and the genres melded together into a combined grouping into one giant guide. You can still choose your own adventure here based on what each book contains” links to title at the end.

• The Book Addict’s “GUIDE” to “Crossover” Books! An infographic that lists of young adult books that would also have appeal to adults. At the end the (linked) titles are listed with the subjects they cover.

• Leading learning: making the Australian Curriculum work for us http://www.acleadersresource.sa.edu.au/index.php?page=bringing_it_to_life From Dept of Ed & Child Development, SA. “We have thought deeply about what we value for our students’ learning, how this is represented in the learning areas through the essence, and how this essence helps us work with all the components of the learning area. In this section we work with our colleagues using the BitL tool to ensure our pedagogy brings the essence of the learning areas to life in the classroom. It helps us engage our learners as scientists, as mathematicians, as historians, and as great communicators – so that they not only know about the important understandings and develop the skills within each learning area, but can bring this understanding to bear in their everyday contexts in powerful ways.”

• Minecraft in school? How video games could be the future of learning – CSMonitor.com “A new study is the latest to support the use of video games, in particular the popular children’s game Minecraft, in classroom learning. Maths, geography, art, design – these are just some of the things that children can learn from the popular video game Minecraft, a new study shows.”

• App Smashing For Educators: Leveraging Tools To Maximize Communication | Imagine Easy Blog “For decades, schools have attempted to build and maintain this crucial bridge to lasting learning. Research shows that the stronger the connection between home and school, the greater the academic achievement can be for students. There are some new tools listed here that all educators can leverage to easily maximize parent-teacher-student communication”.

• Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch: Android apps for the remembering level of Bloom’s As always Kathy has Some great advice. First the infographics that set up the ideas and then offers some ideas for apps to assist teachers to use with students.

• Why Wolfram Alpha has a place in math and two more game-changing ideas for schools. @coolcatteacher “Students who self-assess are the best? That’s what Alan November says. Research shows that students who self-assess their work become top students. What does this mean? Any school can improve with these three things.”

• ISTE 2015: Takeaway Tips for a Library Maker Space | ISTE 2015 | School Library Journal Useful summary from one conference attendee about maker spaces in school libraries. “The maker movement was front and center at the 2015 ISTE conference—and that’s a good thing for me. After following maker initiatives with great interest for some time now, I have the opportunity to design a maker space this year for 6th–12th grade students at my school”

• The Learning Innovation Cycle How Disruption Creates Lasting Change “In education, most of the talk around disruptive innovation revolves around education technology, owing to the potential scale of these technologies, and desperation of education to revise itself. But innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be a matter of economics, as Christensen originally thought of the term, nor of technology, which is the most tempting angle. It can, but there are other disruptors that can lead to innovation that have little to do with either. What might be more interesting than the disruptors, then, might be the process itself. “

• Why maker technology is crucial for students with learning difficulties | eSchool News | eSchool News “3D printing and hands-on learning opens up new worlds to some students”

• Teaching Kids Skills For Deep Reading on Digital Devices | MindShift | KQED News “There’s no doubt that the experience of reading online is different than reading in print, but does it affect comprehension? While several studies have found student comprehension and retention are lower on digital devices, could it be that students just need to learn the right tools to enhance their digital reading? Maria Konnikova explores the research and theories behind reading in her New Yorker column.”

• Book list for pre-teen gifted readers – The Babblery “Pre-teen gifted readers often run into a problem around the age of ten: as younger children they read everything in children’s literature that they could get their hands on. By the time they reach ten years old, they’re starting to run into roadblocks when looking for appropriate books. Some ten-year-olds are ready to go on to Young Adult fiction, but most aren’t. Young Adult, with its focus on teens’ changing bodies and questioning of their place in the world, is often inappropriate and sometimes very upsetting for “tweens” who have outgrown children’s books but are looking for meaty reading to satisfy their literary cravings.”

• Info 101: Book list for pre-teen gifted readers – National gifted children | Examiner.com “By the age of ten or eleven, gifted children are apt to be more sensitive and demanding readers than their peers. They’ve already read everything on the last book list. What will satisfy their hunger for complex, lively stories without teen-focused relationship issues that come up in so many modern novels for teen readers? This post offers a list of books recommended by parents and teachers of kids in this age range”

• Info 101: Book list for young gifted readers – National gifted children | Examiner.com “This list was created with the help of parents who wanted a list of books appropriate for young readers (through 7 years old) who are ready to read long chapter books but are emotionally sensitive”

• Gifted Parenting Support: Finding Age Appropriate Books for Gifted Readers “A difficulty for working with gifted children is where to find age-appropriate reading materials for them. More often than not, one of the early signs of giftedness is being an advanced reader; like years and years advanced for their age. This poses a significant problem for adults because very young children ‘can’ read books which are simply too mature for them.”

• DOs and DON’Ts of Social Media Pictures “A picture’s worth a thousand likes. Or at least more likes than a post without one. Numerous studies have shown that including a profile picture is essential to garnering more page visits, and picture posts are more visible on social media. There’s an active online discussion around the perfect avatar or cover photo, but there is no comprehensive guide to visual engagement for your brand’s entire social media profile.”

• Trends Aside, Libraries Support Student Content Creation Now | Horizon K-12 Report | School Library Journal “The annual Horizon report, released June 29 by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, examines the trends and technologies that will shape primary and secondary education over the next five years. It references libraries as being at the forefront of maker spaces, which are among 18 major trends that include the rise of STEAM education: the intersection and importance of science, technology, arts, engineering, and math. The Horizon Report broke down challenges to school technology adoption into three categories: “solvable,” “difficult,” and “wicked,” representing a range of difficulty to implement over the next five years. The “solvable” problems reflect what many libraries are already doing, like focusing more on blended learning and STEAM. The “wicked” problems were far more dramatic: shifting toward deeper learning approaches and rethinking the role of school itself.”

• 23 Tools For Students To Publish What They Learn There are many tools available for students to publish their ideas to in the year 2015 and you no longer need a great knowledge of HTML and CSS. With the surge of online blogging and publication systems, students now have many opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas with the added chance of getting global feedback on those insights. The author of this post offers a list of some of the online publication tools they recommend that enable students to post their creative impressions on.”

• Minecraft in Education…Not Just A Game | RafranzDavis.com “Minecraft is more than a game. It’s like having a blank canvas to do and be anything. It’s like having a master key to your greatest adventure. The worst thing that can happen if we let kids play is that they will learn much more than our standards sometimes allow. Those who play minecraft know this but the problem is that most people in charge of schools and curriculum do not. So, how can we change that?”

• Design Make Share: An Outline for MAKING in the Classroom | Design Make Teach “Design Make Share is a method for integrating MAKING in the classroom. This method applies to 3D printers and any other type of MAKING from cardboard and scissors to laser cutters and CNC machines.”

• » Biloxi Teachers Paint Lockers to Look Like Spines of Famous Books “The English hallway transformed into a brightly colored Avenue of Literature by teachers. Each of the 189 lockers that line the hallway – unused for more than a decade – has been painted over to look like the spine of a popular book. The project was spearheaded by a group of teachers, who decided to devote their summers to creating an environment more conducive to a love of learning than a procession of defunct storage units. Teacher Elizabeth Williams explained, “We want students to come back to school in August and walk on the hallway and be absolutely amazed with what we’ve done and be curious. We want that to be the driving spark for reading in our classrooms.” In deciding which titles would earn a spot on the Avenue, the Biloxi teachers tried to draw on a wide range of genres, interests and reading levels. Each novel in the Twilight series is represented, but so are Watership Down and Johnny Tremain”

• From Legos to Maker Labs: Fun and Learning After School | graphite Blog One teacher explains how he took his interests and created some rich learning opportunities for his students first using legos and creating a lego club and then embracing the maker movement strategies to further the learning opportunities.

• Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Verbs [Infographic] “According to Churches on his wiki Edorigami, “Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy describes many traditional classroom practices, behaviours and actions, but does not account for the new processes and actions associated with Web 2.0 technologies …” This means the revised Digital Taxonomy verbs listed below are applicable to you facilitating technology use in the modern classrooms. We hope you find this infographic of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy verbs useful in your classroom practices. Please feel free to share it with colleagues you feel may benefit from having a list of taxonomy verbs!”

• How You Can Become a Champion of Digital Citizenship in Your Classroom | EdSurge News Digital citizenship is (or should be) about positive behaviours and needs to be an essential topic that is addressed in the classroom. Often dire warnings and trying to restrict student access results in the opposite effect to what you’re trying to achieve. Teachers need to find a way to integrate digital citizenship lessons within the school day. post with ideas and links

• Microsoft launches site for teachers taking Minecraft into the classroom | Technology | The Guardian “Microsoft, which bought the game’s developer Mojang for $2.5bn in 2014, has launched a site aimed at teachers, aiming to foster a community of educators swapping lesson plans and other tips based on Minecraft. This site was announced (2015) by Microsoft’s vice president of worldwide education Anthony Salcito, complete with a list of some of the ways schools are already incorporating Minecraft into their lessons”

• Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Practical Approach for Deeper Learning | Not Just Any Brick In The Wall “Useing Bloom’s as a basis this teacher has made an altered taxonomy that provides him with a structure in which to categorize questions to aid the learning of pupils. It is, therefore, a useful aid in the design, delivery, or evaluation of my lessons, teaching and, more importantly, the learning of my pupils. I use it as a framework or checklist to ensure I’m using the most appropriate approach to pupil learning in order to develop the desired capabilities (or capacities) and outcomes for them. Here are examples of some of the questions / activities I’ve used (or have penciled in to use):”

• A Reading Log Kids Can Color To assist with motivating readers this site offers some printable reading logs that can be coloured in as books are read.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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