Useful links Weekly

• Free stock photos · Pexels “The some good free stock photos & videos shared by talented creators.”

• Visual to text coding- Index page | Digital Technologies Hub “This lesson sequence provides a bridge between visual coding (eg. Scratch) and General Purpose Programming languages (eg. Python or JavaScript). Each video builds a simple program in all three ways: Scratch, Python and JavaScript. This resource is most suitable if: you have never done General Purpose Programming, you benefit from slow-paced, step-by-step video tutorials.”

• Developing digital citizenship | Services to Schools Education 2020. With our time spent #remotelearning online, good digital citizenship & literacy skills are more important than ever. This guide includes many tips & resources to help you & your students. Developing digital citizenship with the understanding that Digital citizenship encompasses skills, values, and behaviours that include appropriate and effective ways we interact with people and information through media and technology.

• Dylan Wiliam: The nine things every teacher should know | Tes News A list of the nine things created by an experienced teacher with point he wished he had known when he started teaching. “

• factitious It you are teaching digital literacy skills this is a fun way to reinforce your points. A free game that tests your ability to spot FALSE or MISLEADING News. Offers different levels (6) depending on educational level of students

• Everything You Need to Know About Building a Great Screencast Video | Cult of Pedagogy “One of the most effective ways to move instruction online is to build screencast videos. Screencast videos are unique because they are actual recordings of your computer screen or tablet as opposed to a video of an in-person lecture. They are a powerful way to deliver instruction, but they do require a fair amount of time and planning, which I have learned through a lot of trial and error. Building effective screencasts continues to be the barrier that stops educators from making a smooth transition to distance learning, so I have put together the following tips to help guide you through the process.”

• Andrew Fuller: Remote learning tips and ideas for teachers – The Parents’ Website “Remote learning is a major opportunity for schools to refine their lesson planning and delivery. The efforts of teachers to adapt classes to online platforms has been nothing less than heroic. Now we have the chance to incorporate the ingredients that create effective remote learning, accelerate expertise and enhance the experience of our students. The rapid shift to remote learning has been unprecedented and we are all learning as we go through this. At its worst, remote learning can be disorienting and disconnecting. We all need to be innovative in creating learning that is engaging and involving for our students. The ideas in this paper are derived from the author’s research and work with schools of the air and distance education as well as his work with students who have been unable to attend school due to mental health issues.  “

• Free Online Language Learning Resources for Kids | The New York Public Library A compilation (annotated) of useful resources for students learning

• Join NYPL’s #BookCoverDouble Challenge! | The New York Public Library  New twist on an old idea. Recreate book cover images

• Women’s Prize for Fiction Announcing the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – Women’s Prize for Fiction This is the 2020 Womens Prize for Fiction shortlist. Information on the six shortlisted authors and their books is available here.

• Support resources to share with parents | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF “The Covid-19 crisis has meant that schools are having to maintain communications with parents and families in very challenges circumstances. Here are some EEF resources to help schools communicate with parents/carers, as well as resources schools can share with families to support home routines and valuable learning opportunities, such as shared reading.”

• Free Online Language Learning Resources for Kids | The New York Public Library  A compilation (annotated) of useful resources for students learning

• National Standards for Quality Online Learning | From Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA) and Quality Matters (QM) Although a US site it still has useful information for anyone trying remoteteaching. “Below are links to view or download the most current versions of each of the standards sets. National Standards for Quality Online Courses is currently being revised. Below are links to download the past versions of the standards from iNACOL.”

• Free Technology for Teachers: Quick Tip – Apply Custom Colors to Google Slides “Regular users of Google Slides are probably familiar with the process of adding images to the backgrounds of their slides and changing the background color. There is one little background color option that is easily overlooked. That option is applying a custom color that isn’t listed in the default colour menu in Google Slides.”

• Your local Bookshop An list of Australian bookshops has been compiled here so you can see which Australian bookshops offering home delivery, book drops and drive through pickups.

• How to set personal boundaries with remote learning : Innovative Education in VT “Many teachers are are struggling to make a distinction between home and work. This change in working conditions may feel overwhelming.The shift to remote teaching and learning is fraught with challenges. One of the biggest is how to make this type of work sustainable for teachers. In this situation, many are working for hours without breaks, forgetting about their own needs. This is not healthy or sustainable. This article offers some advice bbout how to set up some boundaries.”

• Women’s Prize for Fiction Announcing the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist – Women’s Prize for Fiction This is the 2020 Womens Prize for Fiction shortlist. Information on the six shortlisted authors and their books is available here.

• Getting Started With Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don’t Go Crazy) | Edutopia A handful of tips to help teachers ease into #PBL without getting overwhelmed.

• Becoming a More Connected Educator #digicon15 – Read Write Respond

• Celebrate Science: Where Should We Shelve Informational Fiction? Blog post discussing this literature “For the most part, the authors fully realized that these books should be classified as fiction, and they liked the term “informational fiction” because it acknowledged all the research they’d done and that the books were mostly faithful to the facts. But the Library of Congress labelled these books “juvenile literature” (the term they use for nonfiction). And in most cases, publishers and reviewers called the books narrative nonfiction.”

• Student Leadership Through a Student-Led Podcast @coolcatteacher

• Research Confirms Value of School Librarians | School Library Journal

• Sensory Products AU | Sensory Toys Australia | Sensory Oasis For Kids “Sensory Products for Special Kids with Special Needs. Australian owned & operated, Sensory Oasis for Kids is a Melbourne-based online & retail store run by a mum of three amazing Autistic boys”

• On The Move Visual Kit | Sensory Oasis For Kids

• 7 Good Lesson Plans Sources for Teachers and Educators | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Some good sites mentioned here. ReadWriteThink and TedEx have a lot lot of ideas but from the descriptions of some of the others, there are a few other useful places to go for ideas.

• Create Interactive Online Presentations & free Infographic software. HTML5 Animations, download & Publish | Visme.  A digital tool that allows your create interesting visual stories (Infographics, presentations, etc.). You are allowed to create 5 free resources before you need to pay. My students have found very easy to use and creates some nice looking timelines for their assessment task.

• Jen Robinson’s Book Page: The Third Grade Cliff: My Response to a Finding from the @Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report “The 7th edition of the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report was released last October. Scholastic presents the results of a survey, managed by YouGov, of 2758 adults and children. This biannual report is, I think, one of the best windows into what families are doing and thinking when it comes to kids’ reading. I’m in the process of going through the material and there are certainly causes for optimism overall. However, one of the major  findings hit me hard: The Decline by Nine”. Author discusses some results and how she intends to overcome them.

• 10 Elements Of A Quality Blog Post: Tips For Teaching Students (Poster and Examples) “Students have been learning about the elements of quality blog posts and comments. When high standards are set for publishing online, students tend to yield the greatest results. They can meet academic outcomes while learning how to be a safe and positive digital citizen. This post goes through 10 elements of a quality blog post. You are free to share these tips with students and they might be useful for adult bloggers.”

• Collage Maker | BeFunky: Create Photo Collages Useful to generate interesting images.

• Top 5 Unbiased World News Sources Free From Censorship “Every journalist is aware of the nine principles of journalism. The first says that a journalist’s first obligation is to the truth.
  “This ‘journalistic truth’ is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, valid for now, subject to further investigation.”
  The ability to set aside one’s own prejudices in order to be “neutral” is not a part of those principles. However, “the source of their credibility is still their accuracy, intellectual fairness, and ability to inform.” When journalists let personal biases hinder their objectivity, it puts the entire media organization at risk. Thankfully there are still enough media outlets left that uphold these principles.”

• Stock photos that don’t suck “An ongoing list of the best stock photo sites the author has come across.”

• A Universe of Podcasts: A Summer Listening Guide for Elementary, Middle, and High School Students | School Library Journal  “The 2019 Collaborative Summer Library Program reading theme, A Universe of Stories, offered unlimited opportunities to connect with students and to build community. This summer is also the 50th anniversary of the July 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. As you include related fiction and nonfiction titles on your summer reading lists, consider adding a listening guide that explores the theme and anniversary through podcasts. New research provides compelling reasons to recommend them, and our curated lists will get you, your students, and their families started.” Lots of ideas that could be repurposed.

• School Sends Kids To Meditation Instead Of Detention, With Amazing Results One elementary school has changed the approach to disruptive children. Instead of detention and punishment, the children take part in a “Mindful Moment Program” with some amazing results.

• Three Powerful Google Docs Add-ons for Creating Diagrams and Flowcharts | Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “Google Docs add-ons that enable you to create a wide variety of charts and diagrams. Of course there are numerous other tools you can use for this purpose but these  three are conidered by the authors to be the best. “

• How to Engage Digitally Distracted Students – The Tech Edvocate While it is clear that digital technology is distracting students, the technology is here to stay. For example, while most teachers agree the best way to turn digital distraction is to not allow mobile devices in the classroom, these same teachers agree this is ineffective in the long run. Instead, educators must be proactive and teach proper digital device usage in the classroom. Therefore, teachers must find ways to engage digitally distracted students.”

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Latest addition to the Harry Potter story.

The Harry Potter books nd films are still fondly discussed by our students. Today we began a unit on film study looking at film techniques and many examples from the Potter films were given by the boys.

So it is with interest that I looked at the latest addition to the Potter stable.  The latest installment of the Harry Potter series has a trailer out. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

As always everyone has an opinion and they are quick to share. Below is a video that has a few fans discussing their reactions to the teaser trailer.

What do you think of the trailer?

 

Ranger’s Apprentice The Early Years. Book 1 The Tournament at Gorlan

The Ranger’s Apprentce series has been a big hit at our school. many boys can’t wait to get their hands on the latest edition so I am looking forwarc to going home and reading my new title on my kindle.

The book trailer link was sent to me today that serves to pique my interest.

We have heard about how popular John Flanagan’s series is oerseas so I found this video interesting as well. This was published on YouTube on 13 Sep 2015. John Flanagan’s editor and publisher, Zoe, kept a video diary of her trip to the Netherlands with John to be guests of honour at Ranger’s Apprentice Day. WARNING: video contains juicy information that fans will love.

Useful links

   by  Kackpr 

• [Infographic] Characteristics of a Good Digital Citizen – EdTechReview™ (ETR) “When technology is used in education, it is important to teach kids about digital ethics, to help them to become responsible digital citizens.  Digital citizenship includes digital etiquette, literacy, culture, norms, ethics, online safety, rights, and much more. Knowing the traits of a good digital citizen is important in this technological era.  This infographic sets out the characteristics of a good digital citizen.”

• Summer Reading Tips From Librarians | Scholastic.com Ideas from public librarians (USA) who shared information about summer reading programs that work for them and what tcan be done to keep young people reading during holidays

• Snapchat and 7 More Iffy Messaging Apps Teens Love | Common Sense Media “The best way to approach these apps with your kids? Talk to them about their online reputations — not in terms of “getting caught” by teachers, college-admissions officers, or future employers but as a matter of being true to themselves. Acknowledge that, chances are, they’ll come across extreme, inappropriate, or hurtful content online … and that it’s OK for them to ask you about it, especially if it upsets them. These kinds of conversations will be far from fleeting — the benefits will last a lifetime.”

• Why is Digital Citizenship Important? Even for Youngest Kids – EdTechReview™ (ETR) “In all your classes make your student understand that web is a place to learn and gain things. Keep their focus only on good place over the web where they can learn good things. Today, the engagement of students with technology is more in this digital world, and most of them do not make right choice, in fact they don’t really know what they are doing and what is its affect. Therefore, digital citizenship lessons are mandatory to teach”

• 3 Ways Teachers Are Using Social Media to Engage Students – Brilliant or Insane “Post that makes the case for including social media into learning in schools. Taking advantage of social media as a learning platform is an idea that has been met with some great success. There are three ways described here about how teachers are using social media to engage their students.”

• Digital Citizenship and Internet Safety – EdTechReview™ (ETR)

• Quozio – Make Beautiful Quotes “Quozio turns meaningful words into beautiful images in seconds. Then share ’em on Facebook, Pinterest, email and more!”

• Fastest Quote Maker – QuotesCover.com “… turns any ordinary quotes texts into beautiful quotes picture for Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus, E-Cards, Wallpapers, Pinterest, Posters and other print design.”

• PixTeller – Image Maker PixTeller offers a simple way to design and create visually stimulating images and then share them with others. All you need is your imagination to create targeted image quotes to stimulate interest/learning.

• Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment “Formative assessment is useful tool assist teachers assess the learning needs of their students. Such knowledge allows teachers to modify their teaching to meet the needs of their students. The digital formative assessment tools listed here offer a range of approaches to help teachers undertake this task. “

• EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian “This article, reprinted from the June 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is a thoughtful and insightful  examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement.  The authors’ analysis and argument are strong, and the benefits they tout are inspiring.”

• EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian “This article, reprinted from the October 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is the second in a series of three articles which provides a thoughtful and insightful examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement, as well as expert guidance on how to establish a program. The third article in the series will be published in the December edition of TL and on this website. In this second installment, we will explore the look and feel of the environment and the selection of tools to inspire and equip makers to tinker, create, and invent. Innovation is fundamentally an inspired activity, and the right environment has the potential to inspire new thoughts and creative endeavors.”

• Educational Makerspaces | Teacher Librarian “This final part of the series exposes a real-life case study of a makerspace in an average school in an average district, with results that are anything but average.”

• NEA – Minecraft: Make Learning a Blast “One middle-school teacher describes how he has mined the blockbuster game for equally popular classroom lessons.”

• Year of the Learning Commons Google site set up to share: Celebrating the Transformation of School Libraries and Computer Labs into a Learning Commons. April, 2015 ~ May 2016. Celebrate, initiate, advocate and create opportunities all year. Celebrate, initiate, advocate and create opportunities all year.”

• Puppet Pals HD App Review You can use this to create some unique shows with animation and audio in real time. Iti s easy to pick out actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Movements and audio are recorded in real time for later playback. The free version is limited but the add-ons aren’t too expensive if you are careful about your choices. I like the idea of being able to use people and things from my own photos.

• Resources for Teaching Students HOW TO LEARN — Emerging Education Technologies “Schools are so caught up in teaching fundamentals like reading, writing, and good old “‘rithmatic”, as and knowledge required to pass standardized tests, but how often are they actually teaching students how to learn?” Includes links to resources that explain more about how to learn rather than what to learn.

• Why I Started Teaching With Minecraft | a blog by JasonWilmot

• CamScanner- A Great App for Scanning, Editing and Sharing Docs ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “CamScanner is a document scanning and sharing app. It allows you to instantly scan any type of text or graphic and save or share them with others. Using your phone or tablet camera, you can take a photo and CamScanner will automatically enhance the scanned results so you can easily email, print, fax or share them in PDF or PNG format.” The basic version is available for free.

• TinyTap- A Great App for Creating Educational Games on Android ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

• Top 5 Android Apps for Teaching Kids Coding Skills ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “5 suggestions on some good Android coding apps. This list embeds some really great alternatives to iOS to use on Android. Using these apps students and kids will get to learn coding skills while engaging in funny and enjoyable games and activities.”

• Game: The Sequel to I Hunt Killers (Trailer) – YouTube Game: (#2 or the sequel to I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga) (Book Trailer) – YouTube

• Blood of My Blood trailer – YouTube Book trailer for Blood of my Blood (#3 of I hunt killers by Barry Lyga)e

• I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga (Book Trailer) – YouTube

• After the Ball Official Trailer 1 (2015) – Chris Noth Comedy HD – YouTube “Published on 13 Aug 2014 The book trailer for Blood of my Blood, the final book in the I HUNT KILLERS trilogy by Barry Lyga”

• How do You Choose Good Online Sources? | An Ethical Island This is a great visual to back up teaching students about evaluating their sources of information. You know some” get it” but others are still struggle with evaluating something even if they agree to the why. This is clean and concise.

• Jonathan Stroud – Fan Questions – YouTube Jonathan Stroud, author of the Lockwood & Co. book series – answers Fan Questions – YouTube Published on 14 Nov 2014

• Simon Mayo introduces his book, Itch Rocks – YouTube “Published on 1 Mar 2013. Itch Rocks is the second book in the explosive ‘Itch’ series, in which life is finally getting back to normal for young element hunter, Itchingham Lofte – at least, as normal as it can be when you have a round-the-clock detail of government security guards watching your every move.”

• Library To Learning Commons: 7 Reasons Why Your School Should Make The Shift — Learning 21 – Linkis.com

• Free Technology for Teachers: Dozens of Story Starters in One Free eBook A lot of good ideas for writing.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Google Safety Center – Good Tips for Parents

• Connected Leaders: Engaging School Communities Through Social Media | maelstrom

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

Useful links

   by  kathryn.heiser 

• General Shakespeare — Good Tickle Brain: A Mostly Shakespeare Webcomic “An eclectic collection of mostly Shakespeare-related comics and other miscellany” – from Good Tickle Brain site”

• Shakespeare’s The Tempest Narrative Map | Mike Wirth Art Tempest Island Narrative Map. Mapping places and actions in The Tempest

• The correct usage of ‘thy’ and ‘thou’… – The Meta Picture Infographic – usage of thy and thou

• Runde’s Room: Differentiation in Writing – Goal-Setting Clip Chart “A Personal Writing Goals Clip Chart. It is for use in the classroom to help students track their personal goals.  Students use a clothes peg to do this  Students’ names re written on the clips. “

• BookSeriesInOrder.com – Book Series in Order “The goal of this website is simple: to list the series of every book in order. We provide the book series in order by author(ie: Lee Child), and then in order of the character or series(ie: .Jack Reacher) Where applicable, we provide you with both the publication order of the books written, as well as the chronological order of the books.” May be useful for school libraries as it has YA titles as well.

• New Chart Comparing The Best Tools for Creating Educational Posters and Inforgaphics A chart that compares four useful web tools for creating posters and infographics. It looks at the cost and what you can do with each. These tools are all quite student friendly and less technically complex.

• http://infolit.org/

• Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys – Episode 3 of 3 – YouRepeat

• Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys – Episode 2 of 3 – YouRepeat t

• Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys – Episode 1 of 3 – YouRepeat “Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys – Episode 1 of 3”

• Extraordinary School for Boys: helping boys love literacy – Telegraph “Extraordinary School for Boys: helping boys love literacy After fresh reports of the widening gender gap in the classroom, Gareth Malone tells how he helped some pupils to learn to love literacy .

• Tools | MIT – Docubase

• Gareth Malone: Extraordinary School for Boys “Extraordinary School For Boys is an ambitious three-part series in which Gareth Malone joins the staff at Pear Tree Mead Primary School in Essex. His mission is to re-engage boys who don’t like school and who, like many across Britain, lag behind their female peers. Gareth works with a cross-section of 11-year-old boys, from sporty jocks to secret swots.” Ep 2 is about reading

• Skills for Social Progress http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/skills-for-social-progress-executive-summary.pdf “Skills for Social Progress: The Power of Social and Emotional Skills” OECD 2015 Executive summary” What are the skills that drive well-being and social progress? Policy makers, including eleven Education Ministers and Vice-Ministers, discussed this question at the OECD’s informal Ministerial meeting on Skills for Social Progress in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 23-24 March 2014. They unanimously agreed on the need to develop a “whole child” with a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional skills so that they can better face the challenges of the 21st century.

• Sutton Trust – Teaching and Learning Toolkit “The Sutton Trust-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit is an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.”

• How to Do a Reverse Image Search – YouTube A great tutorial that assist everyone in being a better digital citizen by showing how you can find out information about an image you might find/have. ” Found a photograph online that you’d like to use on your site, but not sure where it came from or who took it? Or are you a photographer who wants to know where your work is being posted? In this Treehouse Quick Tip, we’ll learn how to do a reverse image search using Google Images and TinEye”

• 8 ways Minecraft works on your brain | Playable Good article about how Minecraft assists thinking/learning.

• Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools Science Buddies is a website for science teachers. It offers lots of ideas and tips for science projects. They are well set out and it even offers a topic selection wizard to help students narrow down a topic if they are unsure of what to choose. From them: It “ empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology. Whether your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or win the international science fair, Science Buddies puts comprehensive, scientist-authored tools, tips, and techniques at your fingertips.”

• March 2015: Literacies for the digital age: Information and digital literacy – DEN Blog Network Highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed, this post offers some ideas on how to infuse information literacy and digital literacy skills into the curriculum. Very practical advice and easy to apply.

• Lessons in Creative Commons, Part 2 | Betchablog A very important clarification to the “ND” or “No derivatives ” definition of the CC licences. This is such an important area for all educators to fully understand. Thanks to Chris for following up and sharing the lessons in this post. As always the devil is in the detail and some times the wording of explanation could be so much better and the confusion avoided.

• Lessons in Creative Commons | Betchablog Chris argues for his rights under the CC agreement licences

• Teaching Kids to Code – Teachers With Apps “No one who is part of this new movement believes all kids should grow up to be programmers.  We believe it would be a beautiful outcome if all kids grew up knowing how to use computers to enhance their natural abilities, whatever those are, and grew up with the confidence to be “makers” instead of just consumers. Computer programming is ultimately about problem solving and creating.  “Thinking like a computer scientist” really means understanding what problem you are facing and breaking down that problem into solvable chunks.  The better you get at recognizing the problem the more efficient your solutions become.”

• How to Start a Children’s Book Club for Tweens This article offers advice to anyone working with young people children (Tween) who are interested in books, or if you want to help them discover the world of literature. “A children’s book club is a great way for your child to make friends and socialize outside of school.” These tips here can help you get started and although directed at the younger end of the spectrum (primary) school, many can be adapted for use with secondary school students.

• Book Discussion Groups | Professional Tools This ALA site offers some great advice and links to further information about book clubs and reading groups. “Many libraries provide meeting space for book clubs or administer one or more book discussion group.  This page provides general information about book groups, starting with “one book” programs, some resources for guiding book groups, references for specific types of book groups, and an anonymously contributed guide to establishing and running a book discussion group. “

• Teen Book Clubs | Field Notes A good post for anyone wanting to start a YA book club in their school. There are lots of ideas and links to other great sites that offer tips and strategies, starting from the very basic: how you might recruit members, how to structure a meeting, choosing books, and holding discussions.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Tozzl – Create a Multifaceted Message Board Richard Byrne reflects on this digital message board and decides that it has quite a few useful applications in schools – with classes. “Tozzl allows you to quickly create private, password-protected message boards as well as public boards. “

• Educational Technology Guy: Read & Write Text to Speech web app comes to iPad and Android “Read and Write for Google is an excellent Chrome app that provides text-to-speech functions from your browser. They have just released a free iPad and Android app. The apps provide text to speech functions, which are great for ESL, learning disabled, visually challenged and struggling readers, on your device, just like the web app does in the Chrome Browser and Chromebooks.

• The cheat sheet to choosing effective education apps – Daily Genius “In an attempt to uncover what works, I combed through a few hundred apps and analyzed them by asking the following questions: How easy is this app to use for less tech-savvy students and teachers? Is the app free? This is crucial for multi-device or BYOD classrooms. What are other educators saying about this app? How are an array of classrooms using this app? How often should the app be used? Can the app be used out of the classroom? Is it designed to be easy enough to use when teachers or classroom leaders aren’t there to help? There are, of course, many other questions to consider when trying out an iPad app (or any other smart device app) for classroom usage. However, I’d recommend taking your deliberate time and spending as much time testing, researching, and trying out as many apps as possible.”

• BusyTeacher: Free Printable Worksheets For Busy Teachers Like YOU! A lot of useful resources for teachers here.

• 15 FREE Google Drawings graphic organizers — and how to make your own | Ditch That Textbook A great explanation of how teachers and/ or students can use existing technology to better organise their ideas and thoughts. “Paper versions of graphic organizers can do a nice job of that. But by making them digital in Google Apps, they instantly become customizable. Multiple people can collaborate on them in real time. They can be shared with a link, embedded in a website or downloaded as an image file”

• Best Ed Tech Practices: Discovery and Curation In today’s educational world the skills of resource discovery and curation are important. This post focuses on providing guidance in finding high quality, supplementary resources for learning and ideas for organizing these resources for future use.

• 9 Ideas for Making the Most of Education Conferences “A few good ideas to assist you in getting the most out of the 2015 conferences that are conducted and fully exploring everything that they have to offer.

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