Misty Robots!

From Misty Robitics... "Teachers & Educators: From block programming, to JavaScript and Python, to Arduino, Misty II has got your students covered.   Are your kids tired of putting together the same robots over and over? Are they ready to move on to programming a pre-built robot with advanced abilities?  Are they doing FIRST robotics clubs, but frustrated because they don't have a chance to explore the coding side of robots more deeply?  With Misty II, students can explore: face/object detection and recognition (for a few students or a whole class), computer mapping and navigation, human-computer interaction (How can you make Misty express joy or curiosity?), remote viewing and communication, Arduino accessories, and more... " 

Check it out @ https://www.mistyrobotics.com/  and talk to Bronwyn if you have more questions!

Great Story Website

www.Storylineonline.net


Storyline Online is a great website where SAG actors read books aloud.

SVCUE T3 2017

in a session i went to, we created a card deck of the the things you need to know in order to pass the google certified teacher level 1 test.

here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qEpHPX7UGPSAQeZZ9IcEYXHvV12JmUH51oaNAbMpVUM/edit#slide=id.g1d10109f7d_0_35

Swivl- A robot recording device!

Swivl is a great tool for recording group discussions or lectures. the recordings can be used for reflective teaching, filming student discussions, or student video productions. it works great for creating video clips meant to be used in professional development.

Swivl uses an ipad or any other phone, tablet etc...
It can be mounted to a tripod or stand alone.
the speech recording is actually done with a little wand that only picks up the voices of the people it is closest to.  it can also track the speakers as they move.

love using this!

Anybody have tips on the best way to join Silicon Valley CUE?  Are you all members yet?

New EdTech programs featured at Imagine K12

Imagine K12 is an Accelerator for EdTech programs.  They invite those with interesting ideas in the Educational Technology field to come and get support for their new companies.  Part of that is "Educators Day" when teachers and others are invited to come and hear brief presentations and visit with the founders.  The latest group presented on Nov 17, 2016.

Here are the ones that look interesting this year.  Most of them are giving free trials for some period of time right now, and others are free all the time.

RocketLit  -- Lots of reading passages for Social Studies and Science tied to many Common Core Standards for grades 3-8.  But, the best part is, you can assign every student in your class to read the same passage, and the student or you can pick the reading level for that passage.  Each passage can be as low as 3rd grade or as high as 12th grade.  They have quizes that go with them, tied to the reading level also.  Each article adapts individually to all these levels.  As I was talking to the founder, I asked him to connect with Study Sync and see if he can apply his method to their reading passages.  I've heard from several of you that this is a problem.  He had never heard   of Study Sync, but thought it was a great idea.  I'm going to try to connect them. www.rocketlit.com

Kaizena -- Fancy ways to give feedback on student written work.  Ties to Google Classroom and other Google Docs.  You highlight any word or words and can give oral feedback for students to listen.  Or type the first few letters of a common critique, like "comma splice" and it inserts a short video to explain the concept to the student.  Free to teachers.  www.kaizena.com

Sown to Grow -- I look at this as next level up past Class Dojo.  It's all about increasing growth mindset. Students each set their own goals.  They record their own scores on those goals, and then program and teachers give suggestions for reflection and evaluation.  Students feel like they earn their own scores, not something the teacher gives them.  Free 3 month trial, then price/student.  www.sowntogrow.com

Plickers  -- I've seen this one before and it's very slick.  It's "paper clickers."  If you've always wanted a set of the clickers where students can do answers to questions and you automatically see the answers, then this is what you need.  Those sets cost hundreds of dollars.  Plickers are free.  You print out a page for each student.  Pages are on their website. It has a funny-looking pattern and the small letters A, B, C, D on each corner.  You can ask a multiple choice or true-false question, and the students hold up their papers with their choice of answer at the top.  You scan the room with your phone's Plickers App, and get immediate scores on your phone for the classroom as a whole and each individual student.  It's a great way to check for understanding.  Students keep their paper in their desk or binder and you can use them on a moment's notice.  www.plickers.com 

Kickup  They do analysis of District PD and follow up to see how teachers are using it in the future.  It's being used in some other districts around here, and they seem to like it.  It's more thorough than just our surveys.  It does analysis and suggestions for large groups or individual teachers.   www.kickup.co   (yes, it really is .co, not .com)

Try any of these that look interesting to you and let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Sue Allen

Teachers and RCSD community members are invited to the first Makerspace "Make and Take" Hour

Thursday 12/1 at 3:30 pm at McNair (rm 11). 

The activity will be paper circuits with LEDs to design cards/ornament/art with a winter theme!

We will supply materials, and you get to keep your masterpiece.  If you really like the project, you can also bring it to your classroom or collaborate with your makerspace to do it with your students.  Or you can just make a really cool project that will be yours to keep!

Note Anywhere

Note Anywhere is a Chrome extension that  is very simple and self-explanatory. It really just lets you add virtual Post-it notes anywhere in Chrome. You can even close the tabs and the notes will be there when you navigate to the same page again, although I wouldn’t use it to store important information, of course. You can customize the color and font of your notes. 


Note Anywhere 

Coding in the Classroom!

If you're looking for a great way to teach problem solving and growth mindset with technology look no further than code.org! This site is a great, teacher-friendly way to introduce computer science in your classroom. You can create classes and assign a 20 hour coding "class" to each student individually. They have their own log in and password and they can access this at any time. They work through the lessons independently, watching videos and working on lessons at their own pace. I use it as a station activity during math centers as well. The collaboration between students as they use write their very own code is awesome!

Also, I recently learned how to color code folders in Google Drive and it is life changing!!!

Great Website www.Skoolbo.com

Great website to use in the classroom.

www.skoolbo.com is a free website that differentiates based on our students learning. It is common core aligned. It hits both language arts and math. Here is a sample skill list.

stop motion food webs!

Allison Smith and I are making food web stop-motion animations on the iPads in the MakerSpace at Brentwood tomorrow!

My students are really becoming engaged with using the computers. this is the first year they have them in the classroom and many students have already memorized their user names and passwords. They are excited to start coding classes in January and learn how to program our LegoMindstorm robot.

CAASPP Tool Videos

Last year, I made a bunch of short videos using Screencastify covering how to use the tools embedded in the CAASPP tests, as well as how to answer some of the question types.  They were shared with 4th and 5th grade teachers in my school a few weeks before testing, and were extremely helpful in getting the kids to practice using and getting comfortable with the testing tools.  Feel free to email me at kdayton@ravenswoodschools.org if you would like access to the videos for this year!

I was the TECH lead at my school site last year in SFUSD. This is my first year in Ravenswood. I am familiar with Chromebooks, iPads, MacBooks, and iPod usage in te classroom. This year I am using Kindle Fires with my students.

Mosa Mack Science

This year I am field testing a new NGSS aligned curriculum for my 6th grade science class. Mosa Mack Mosa Mack: Science Detective is a web-based series of animated science mysteries and corresponding inquiry-based curriculum activities. The pre-library beta version, which includes three episodes and curriculum supplements like discussion guides, hands-on activities, vocabulary cards and engineering challenges, is available for free or with a yearly license (which is what I bought with my fall EPAK grant). 

The episodes are six minutes long and teach a science topic through a character-based mystery. Each episode ends with an activity in which students have to solve the mystery using evidence gathered from the episode. The initial content is geared towards 4th-8th grade classrooms, and teachers can project them for a whole class or break students into smaller groups to explore mysteries tailored to them.

A couple highlights:
-Spanish subtitles for videos
-NGSS aligned 
-Engineering projects for each unit
-A working science curriculum!!! yay!

This is my first meeting. I use the laptops, Google Drive, and doc cams in my classroom. I hope to learn more and contribute to the Team.

I went to the ed surge event last weekend and learned about a bunch of exciting new tech apps, programs, and websites:

writereader.com   this is a great website for primary grades. it allows children to type in a story page by page, then choose a picture from a kid friendly google image search for each page. an adult then comes and writes the child's words underneath with correct spelling. the books can be emailed to parents, printed out in booklet as well as two other forms. books can be published and read world wide and then readers can like the books and it also shows how many "hits" the book got!

also
talking points- a translation app to text parents in their home language

lessonplanet.com- open ed resources free for teachers!!!!

pagamo- gamified practice for kids.

Pop Ups

Students who are in Let's Go Learn and want to link to Khan Academy videos run into a problem.  Nothing happens.  But if you look carefully in the upper right corner of the page there will be a tiny little box with a red X on top.  Click on that and then on the radio button to Always Allow Pop Ups from Let's Go Learn.
Problem Solved!

Technology in the Classroom.

Since I am a brand new teacher this year I am starting with the basics. (i.e. Doc cam, projector, chrome books)

Howdy, All!

I have this great new tech item that I recently purchased.  I'm currently taking videos throughout the school day of our students, teachers, and events in order to publish them either on our district FB page, on the District website, or on our future school website.  I want smooth, professional videos with my little Sony Action Cam.  That's where this Feiyu gimbal (video stabilizer) comes in. 

It's a couple of hundred dollars but the video this allows you to take with action cameras is phenomenal.   There's one available for GoPro's as well.  A YouTube review link is available below.  Watch out for some amazing footage from Los Robles in the near future!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoTSQECBXPs

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1161604-REG/feiyu_gm_g4_s_g4_3_axis_handheld_gimbal.html


~Nelson