INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
October, 2017
Sumner County Teachers and Staff:
Happy Fall! This month we are focused on "What is NEW with Google Classroom," "New Digital Tools," and "Digital Citizenship." Please take a few minutes and review the following websites and instructional techniques. Have a wonderful October and Happy Teaching! Please contact the Instructional Technology Coordinators if you are interested in technology training.
What's new in Google Classroom....
1. Single view of student work: To help teachers track individual student progress, Google created a page for each student in Classroom that shows all of their work in a class. With this new view, teachers and students can see the status of every assignment and can use filters to see assigned work, missing work, or returned and graded work. Teachers and students can use this information to make personalized learning decisions that help students set goals and build skills that will serve them in the future.
2. Reorder classes: Teachers can now reorder their Classrooms to organize them based on daily schedule, workload and even priorities. This new feature will help teachers to stay organized throughout the school year. The tiles on the Classroom page can now move around to place in any order. The tiles on the Classroom page can now move around to place them in any order and students can also use the same feature.
3. Decimal grading:To be as accurate with feedback as possible, educators can now use decimal points when grading assignments in Google Classroom.
4. New Classroom integrations: Apps that integrate with Classroom offer educators a seamless experience, and allow them to easily share information between Classroom and other tools they love. Please welcome the newest A+ apps to the #withClassroom family: Quizizz, Edcite, Kami and coming soon, Code.org. (Check out these links and let us know if you would like help integrating these into your Google Classroom.)
5. Display class code: Joining Google Classroom classes is easier than ever thanks to this new update. Teachers can now display their class code in full screen allowing students to quickly join new classes.
6. Import Google Forms Quiz scores into Classroom: Using Quizzes in Google Forms allows teachers to take real-time assessments of students’ understanding of a topic. Soon, teachers will be able to import grades from Quizzes directly into Google Classroom.
7. Add feedback in question-by-question grading in Quizzes: At ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) this year, Google launched question-by-question grading in Quizzes in Google Forms to help teachers save time by batch grading assessments. Google is taking it one step further and now teachers will have the option to add feedback as well.
Check out these new digital tools...
Woot Math Polls
Woot Math Polls provides digital manipulatives for fractions, decimals and ratios for grades 3 and up. The Woot Math Polls platform lets you intuitively create fun and engaging math polls. ... A dynamic math editor allows you to enter math expressions, exponents, integrals, functions, fractions, and more, making it a resource for students in any grade. Launch a quiz now from our ever-expanding library, or create your own in minutes. Use the polls for quizzes, instructional warm-ups, formative assessments and exit tickets. Join the Woot Math community, and share your polls and quizzes with other teachers.
FlipGrid
FlipGrid is a video platform used to empower student voice and ignite discussion. In FlipGrid, teachers post discussion topics to which students respond via video, creating a social learning environment that provides every student an equal voice and increases engagement. Don’t just ask a question. Expand their world and ignite a discussion! Foster previous experiences, share a booktalk, discuss current projects and events, delve deep into ideas, or collaborate on anything. If you believe it’s valuable for students to verbalize their learning processes ... that’s a Flipgrid Topic! You can moderate videos, provide custom feedback, set the privacy rules, and more.
Mystery Science
Mystery Science (free for limited time) provides ready-made science mysteries for elementary school students. Each lesson contains a central mystery, discussion questions, supplemental reading, and a hands-on activity. Mystery Science offers online science lessons that are super easy to use and have outstanding content. Film footage, animations, and other illustrations with voice over instruction do an excellent job of teaching the material. The lesson starts with a short introductory video, followed by discussion questions for the class. Finally, the lesson ends with a hands-on activity designed to help students find the answer to the key question.
Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship Week (October 16th-20th) and continues throughout the year. Being a good digital citizen is more than knowing your way around the web. It’s about empowering your students with skills to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly online, allowing them to connect and collaborate in meaningful ways.
Check out these resources:
https://spark.adobe.com/page/tYqQermgaOCbd/
This is a great resource of information.
Google's Digital Citizenship curriculum:
https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/
https://sites.google.com/view/wickedtech/learn-more/digital-literacy
https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship
https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/16/digital-citizenship-week/
Contact us....
If you have any questions, please contact one of the Instructional Technology Coordinators:
Sumner County Schools