EdTech@NSCDS
All the Tech & Innovation News You Can Use • Issue #17
EdTech@NSCDS News
News
- BIG NEWS! Check out the new Tech@NSCDS website! Find help and resources on this site.
- The NSCDS dashboard is THE place to find important links for staff and faculty. Chris J. recently refreshed this page. Bookmark it (Command + D) for easy access!
- We're now on Twitter! Follow us at https://twitter.com/TechAtNSCDS.
- Materials from our February 15th PD day can be found here.
- Check out Dana's 8th Grade This I Can Believe podcasts. Great work, Dana and students!
- Apple Teacher is a self-directed, professional learning program that focuses on the use of iPads and Mac computers. Apple tools such as Garageband, Pages, Keynote, etc. are featured. Teachers at North Shore should participate complete the 8 modules for either the Mac or iPad track by the end of August 2019.
- Congratulations to our new Apple Teachers: Lee B., Austin G. , Ann G., Alejandra M., Dana S., and David K! Way to go!
- Send me a copy of your Apple Teacher certificate when you've completed either the iOS track or Mac track.
Reminders
- Department heads and grade levels, please invite me to any upcoming department meetings. I'd also like to observe in any classrooms. invite me in!
INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE - Listening
- Lit2Go - Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom. (Mostly appropriate for middle and high school students.)
- Librivox - Librivox has free audiobooks in the public domain read by volunteers from around the world. There is an iOS app for Librivox, too.
- Listening Wise - This site has many 3-6 minute stories for grades 5-12. Teacher accounts are free; there is pricing available for student accounts which allows one to assign stories and to assess listening skills.
- Poem-A-Day - This site is from poets.org. You can have a poem and recitation emailed to you every day; teacher materials are also available.
- Storyline Online - Storyline Online contains a free treasure trove of videos with celebrities reading popular children's books. See an example video below and the app below.
PRODUCTIVITY - Working with Audio
Ways to Record
- Quicktime is built into your Mac and allows one to record audio, screencasts, and videos. Here are step-by-step directions on how to use this app. Apple Support also has good documentation on how to use Quicktime.
- Garageband is another option.
- Audacity is an open source tool for recording audio.
On your iPad -
- The Voice Memos app is built into your iPad
- Garageband is also an option on the iPad.
- Don't forget that you can record in Notability! This is a great feature for students who may want to review a lecture.
Instructional Ideas -
Text to Speech
Did you know? You can have text read to you on a Mac. Select the text that you want to be read aloud, and then click on it the selected text while holding down your Control key. Then select Speech and then Start Speaking. Alternatively, you can set up keystrokes to do the same thing.
GLOBAL COLLABORATION
Upcoming Opportunity: No. More. Plastic.
Support a Home Grown Global Project!
Our Spanish 5 Classes is currently studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We invite you to join us to celebrate the International Mother Language Day by raising awareness in our community at NSCDS and beyond. Everyone is welcome to participate in our project Stand Up For Human Rights, Multilingual Video Collection.
Lucy Gray helped us to create a flipgrid to easily access to all the translations of the UDHR and recording your video from any device just by clicking our grid link.
So, we invite you to CHOOSE an article of the UDHR that resonates with you and RECORD yourself reading in your mother language, the language of your ancestors or in one of the 500 translated languages. Encourage your class, your friends or members of your family to record an article.
Let's see how many languages we can record!
These are the links you will need:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - English
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - By Language (+500 Languages)
Our Multilingual Video Collection
Make sure to:
1, Tell us your name (Students should NOT include their last names)
2. Where are you from (city or town, country)
3. The language in which you are recording