Oakland Schools Digital Learning
Newsletter - March 2021
In this issue you will find
- 3 Act Lessons for elementary math
- an interactive website for practicing geography skills
- information about Science News for Students, a free source of daily articles on science and more
- information about a free, online debate platform for secondary students
- free Google slides and Jamboard templates you can copy and use
- an ELA lesson idea where secondary students create iMovies about tone words
- a template for Bitmoji Intro Slides to use as your class is joining your online session
- a free professional learning opportunity that is perfect for "March is Reading Month"
Please reach out if you have questions about any of the information in this newsletter.
~Laura and Vinos
Resources for Elementary
Mathematics - 3 Act Lessons
World Geography Games
The World Geography Games website provides a fun place for your students to hone their geography skills via entertaining games. The available topics include countries, capitals, flags, regions, bodies of water, mountains, deserts, metropolitan areas and more to test and challenge your students' brains.
Resources for Secondary
Science News for Students
Kialo EDU - Free Platform for Online Debates and More!
Educators have been using Kialo to help students get to the core of the issues they’re discussing by putting their knowledge into action, sharpening their critical reasoning skills, demonstrating their understanding, and engaging constructively with each other. You can use Kialo Edu to take your classroom discussions online, break down complex subjects for your students, and shake it up with new types of assignments.
Check out this sample of a student debate in action: Medical Ethics: Healthcare is a Universal Right
Watch the ~2 minute video below to learn more about the platform.
Google Workspace
Free Google Slides and Jamboard Templates
iPads
Create "Tone Movies" in iMovie
Options for how you can use your students' creations include
- show one word a day on the announcements
- have a class viewing and vote on the most creative, effective, professional, etc.
- post videos to a class website for future studying and viewing
- publish to YouTube
- post videos to your learning management system or website
To help you adapt this lesson for use with your students, check out this sample of her instruction sheet and a list of tone words she uses.
Online Learning
Bitmoji Intro Slides
Professional Learning Opportunity
Just-in-time learning for "March is Reading Month!"
Sign up for our free, self-paced, online course, "Creating #Booksnaps with Google Drawings."
#BookSnaps have taken the education world by storm! This incredibly simple and original idea is transforming the way teachers and students interact with books and other text. Booksnaps can be used as a learning activity in multiple curriculum areas including ELA, Science, Social Studies, and Math.
BookSnaps provide a way for students to digitally annotate and markup text from books and other materials they are reading. Creating BookSnaps helps students with retention, comprehension and engagement.
Tara Martin, the inventor of Booksnaps, used Snapchat with her students to create BookSnaps, however many educators are not comfortable having students using Snapchat for learning. That doesn’t mean your students can’t create BookSnaps! In this course you will learn how to create BookSnaps with Google Drawings. It is expected that it will take 4.5 hours to complete the course. This includes the time you will spend creating BookSnaps and designing and implementing a lesson. You can begin and end anytime between now and October 25, 2021.
Check out these examples to get a better idea of what students do when they make a Booksnap. Then head to Registration and sign up!
4.5 SCECHs are available for a $10 processing fee.
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Oakland Schools Digital Learning Twitter posts can be found at os_edtech.
When you are posting to Twitter about things related to digital learning and educational technology, don't forget to use the hashtag #oakedtech.
Using the hashtag will help Oakland County educators, who are interested in the effective use of digital learning, to connect and better collaborate with each other.
Oakland Schools Digital Learning Consultants
Laura.Cummings@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2283
Vinos Kassab
Vinos.Kassab@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2229