Useful links

• Resources For Teaching Online Due To School Closures – The Edublogger “This guide will give you insights into how educators around the world are approaching school closures.
  Thousands of teachers worldwide are currently sharing snippets of their experiences via social media or their blogs. We’ve compiled, curated, and built on some common themes and ideas to create this extensive guide.”

• 11 amazing productivity apps for teachers that will keep you organized – BookWidgets “11 top productivity apps that can help you stay organized. Some of these teacher tools will help you manage your time as well. You’ll find productivity apps for iPhone, Mac, Android, as well as free productivity apps that go on all platforms.”

• Free Voice Typing in Google Slides – Teacher Tech An explanation about – how to add voice typing to Google Slides and made it FREE!!! A former math teacher, he knows how important this feature is to teachers, especially teachers of younger children. Slides Translator allows students to take text from the slide and translate it to their native language. A new hidden feature of Slides Translator is VOICE TYPING!
  Install Slides Translator
  After installing Slides Translator, go to the Add-on menu and choose “Slides translator” and then it gives you the option to use voice typing in the sidebar or as a floating toolbar. Click on the textbox you want to voice type in, click on the mic icon in Slides Translator. When you pause… it turns your voice into text.

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Schedule and Host Google Hangouts Meet Events – Video For those who are interested here is the whole process in a video format illustrating how to schedule and host Google Hangouts Meet events. The following tutorial video includes: How to Create Google Hangouts Meet Events using two methods for creating events and inviting your students to join those events.”

• Free Technology for Teachers: Two More Guides to Transitioning to Online Instruction “Two guides that I’d like to draw your attention to.” “Rushton Hurley is the founder of Next Vista for Learning, a video sharing site. Before focusing on Next Vista Rushton was the principal of an online school in Texas. He has published Emergencies and Switching to Online Learning. In that guide Rushton outlines how to try to maintain continuity in making the switch to online classrooms and recommends a series of free and low-cost tools to make the switch. What Richard Byrne likes about his guide is that many of the tools he mentions are ones that are already popular in classrooms, he just does a good job of framing their use in context of making a quick transition to online classrooms. (One quick logistical note about Rushton’s guide, the links for each section of the guide are in the upper-right corner of the guide’s landing page. They might not jump out at you if you’re on a tablet or phone).”

  MonkeyLearn – Word Cloud MonkeyLearn is a new tool for creating word clouds from text that you supply and it allows you customize the display of your word clouds before you download them as PNG files. MonkeyLearn can also be used to extract a keyword from a document. You can also use it to analyze the sentiment of a document.

• Wheel of Names | Random name picker Wheel of Names is a free random name picker website. There are many random name pickers available on the web but this one offer a bit more then most because it not only lets you enter names, it lets you upload images to be chosen at random. Wheel of Names also lets you create a free account that you can use to save a series of wheels. That option could be helpful if you have multiple classes and don’t want to enter names whenever you need to pick a name at random.
• Keep Calm and Posters Generator, Maker For Free – KeepCalmAndPosters.com Easy tool to use to create your own posters

• 7-10 resources “A collection of resources aligned to the NSW curriculum that supports teachers to deliver remote learning to students in Years 7-10.”

• 16 Free Resources for Schools Who are Closing Due to Coronavirus @coolcatteacher

• Remote Learning: Impossible Desires | Teaching it Real “We are in uncharted waters at the moment. We are going to have to perform a delicate balancing act between what we want to achieve and what is actually possible. This has meant we have to adapt, setting work appropriate work, checking work that pupils have done and making sure that they get some kind of feedback. “

• Resources for Cyber Security Awareness Month • TechNotes Blog “A collection of resources, ideas, and activities about cyber security that can be implemented and shared with students (and teachers).”

• Ed Tech New Roundup: Taking It Online • TechNotes Blog “Here are a few ways the landscape of online learning is changing and growing.”

• Copyright-Free Images for Student Work • TechNotes Blog

• A Beginner’s Toolkit for Teaching Remotely | Hooked On Innovation “This beginner’s toolkit us a start for a teacher just now getting started. It does not focus on a grade level or subject area with this guide, but rather a set of tools, resources, questions, and ideas you’ll want to have in your virtual toolkit.”.

• Creative Writing 6 – Gratian Vas – Google Books

• Metaphor and Simile examples Flashcards | Quizlet Short quiz with answers

• Teaching Ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar | Book Units Teacher A range of activities including:Create each mini-book from a single piece of paper, folded to form a book. The finished books contain 6 pages where students can list character traits for the main characters. This is a valuable tool for a book such as Holes with three story plots taking place and many characters to remember. Just click on the image below to download the free printables for this activity. An answer key is included to make this activity a print and go project.”

• Moving Your Class Online: A Survival Guide for Teachers – YouTube “A video to help teachers making the shift to online leavening during the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

  5 tips for effective online study – Monash University Library Blog “Online education can be just as effective and rewarding as traditional classroom methods, provided you devote some time to preparing yourself and try out some strategies for success.
  To help you make this transition and gain confidence in online education, we offer the following top 5 tips for a strong start.”

• Python 101 | Code Breaker Free course to teach Python

• M Davidson Resources – Coding Across the Curriculum

• Be Internet Awesome – About 

• Photo Booth App | Code Avengers

• The Tour Guide Activity | Teaching London Computing: A RESOURCE HUB from CAS LONDON & CS4FN “This activity is an example of creating an algorithm that is a simple sequence of instructions to do in order. It shows that if we have written down a solution to the problem in the form of an algorithm then we are able to do tours in future just by following the steps, without having to work it out from scratch again. Also if we write down the algorithm we can check that it definitely works by following it step by step on paper.”

• (207) ANZ’s James Kotsias on working in cyber security and “Social Engineering” – YouTube “ANZ’s James Kotsias on working in cyber security and “social Eegineering””He got into cyber security by helping out on a “Red Team” operation. These teams that are paid to hack into big companies to test their security – bank heist style! He also elaborates on why social media can be a hacker’s best resource”

• (202) Network Security 101: Full Workshop – YouTube  A comprehensive video on the topic that starts at the basic level.

• Best Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts of 2020 A range of prompts

• Best Historical Fiction Writing Prompts of 2020  Good ideas to assist students to start writing

• 5 Sites to Download Free and Copyright-Free Music for YouTube Videos Don’t post a video on YouTube with background music from a copyrighted source that will be taken down. The sites mentioned here offer free and royalty-free music.

• Online Learning Resources | National Communication Association “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more colleges and universities are shuttering their physical campuses and ordering instructional faculty to migrate courses online. NCA’s Teaching & Learning Council has developed this list of online teaching & learning resources; please return for updates and new resources in the days/weeks to come.”

• How to Learn in an Online Classroom – Student Tutorial @coolcatteacher 

• 10 Ways to Use Screencasting for Formative Assessment @coolcatteacher “Screencasting is a useful assessment tool. Vicki Davis uses it for her video tutorials. She also has her students make their own screencasts to help her assess their progress. In this blog post, she shares how she uses screencasting to assess student work. She also gives some suggestions for using screencasting in formative assessment. Specifically, she mentions features of Screencastify, the tool she recommends for students to use for Google Chrome or Chromebooks.”

• Beware of ‘ZoomBombing:’ screensharing filth to video calls | TechCrunch

• Will the Coronavirus Crisis Bring Creativity into Education? Interesting article discussing if the Coronavirus Crisis will bring creativity into Education?

• Resources for learning at home while we’re keeping each other safe — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch A very good post that describes many resources available for teaching and learning remotely

• Learning at home – Wakelet A Wakelet list of free learning resources and tools to enjoy with kids and as a family, while we’re are at home. Note that this list points to resources made freely available by a growing number of publishers to support learning during this crisis.

• Infographic: Child online safety – Teacher

• (193) Host a Live Virtual Classroom – Google Classroom, Calendar, and Google Hangouts Meet – YouTube “This video tutorial will show you how to host a live meeting or class with students via Google Classroom, Calendar, and Hangouts Meet. Google Calendar and Hangouts Meet can also be used to conference with other faculty and staff.”.

• 7-10 resources “A collection of resources aligned to the NSW curriculum that supports teachers to deliver remote learning to students in Years 7-10.”

• 16 Free Resources for Schools Who are Closing Due to Coronavirus @coolcatteacher

• Remote Learning: Impossible Desires | Teaching it Real “We are in uncharted waters at the moment. We are going to have to perform a delicate balancing act between what we want to achieve and what is actually possible. This has meant we have to adapt, setting work appropriate work, checking work that pupils have done and making sure that they get some kind of feedback. “

• Resources for Cyber Security Awareness Month • TechNotes Blog “A collection of resources, ideas, and activities about cyber security that can be implemented and shared with students (and teachers).”

• Ed Tech New Roundup: Taking It Online • TechNotes Blog “Here are a few ways the landscape of online learning is changing and growing.”

• Copyright-Free Images for Student Work • TechNotes Blog

• Learning from home ” DET site page assist learning from home. They will continue to update this page in the coming weeks. On this page: Learning continuity contingency planning: early childhood and Learning continuity contingency planning: Online options; Offline options; Tips for remote curriculum delivery; Privacy and safety considerations; Information and privacy; Safe use of digital technologies; Using Digital Technologies to Support Learning and Teaching.

• Reduce Student Anxiety (and Your Own) During Uncertain Times | Common Sense Education

• Best Tools for Virtual and Distance Learning | Common Sense Education CommonSenseEd has put together a list to assist teachers with options to make virtual learning or distance learning work for all students. The best tools for virtual and distance learning. They have grouped the tools according to some key needs teachers may have when setting up virtual classrooms.

• A Beginner’s Toolkit for Teaching Remotely | Hooked On Innovation “This beginner’s toolkit us a start for a teacher just now getting started. It does not focus on a grade level or subject area with this guide, but rather a set of tools, resources, questions, and ideas you’ll want to have in your virtual toolkit.”

• How to use a school closure to surge ahead academically – The Parents’ Website Full of great practical strategies for students (and parents) – a great read