Oakland Schools Digital Learning
Newsletter - January 2021
In this issue you will find information about Pebble Go, an early elementary resource, provided by the Michigan eLibrary; a virtual owl pellet dissection site; a link to HippoCampus where secondary educators can find free videos, animations and simulations in 13 different subject areas; highlights about free resources for Social Studies from C-SPAN; information about some simple suggestions to increase engagement in synchronous online sessions; a peek at a high school teacher’s use of chat in an online meeting; resources for Choice Boards; a link to Apple's free, ongoing, virtual conference sessions; creativity ideas for iPad learning; a tutorial for Google Classroom Originality Reports; ideas for getting started with coding; and a free professional learning opportunity from the Oakland Schools Digital Learning team.
Please reach out if you have questions about any of the information in this newsletter.
~Laura and Vinos
Resources for Elementary
Pebble Go
Portions of the subscription resource Pebble Go are provided by the Michigan eLibrary for all Michigan residents. The resources are designed for PK-3 students and the topics we have access to are Social Studies and Animals. Pebble Go includes informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities. The read aloud feature provides narration performed by humans for real-word pronunciation. Your students will love using PebbleGo for learning time and time again. Use this document to quickly learn more about Pebble Go and access lesson plans.
Virtual Owl Pellet
Resources for Secondary
HippoCampus - 7000+ Free Videos, Animations & Simulations in 13 Subject Areas
HippoCampus is a free, core academic web site that provides multimedia content -- videos, animation, and simulations -- on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school teachers and their students, free of charge. You can project HippoCampus content during synchronous classroom learning as well as assign it for independent student use. Students can also use the site independently for studying and exam prep. Users do not need to register or log in to use the site.
C-SPAN Classroom
- Lesson Plans and Bell Ringers: Extensive archive of classroom ready Lesson Plans and Bell Ringer content developed by C-SPAN and their membership of teachers.
- Create and Save Your Own Content: Develop your own Lessons and Bell Ringers. Save your work and share the finished product with students and other C-SPAN Classroom members.
- Membership Emails: Members will receive timely email notifications about new and featured resources, programming, and various educational opportunities for teachers and students.
- Bookmarks: Bookmark video clips, lessons, bell ringers and other resources, that are saved in readily accessible folders located on your profile page
Ideas for Online Learning
Online Teaching Visual Cues
Sound Effects to Use in Your Online Meetings
Teach Like a Champion - Pasting the Chat
In this article, "Pasting the Chat and Other Insights from Hassan Clayton's Lesson," you can read about how one high school teacher used a Google Doc and excerpts from students' responses in the online meeting chat to focus and deepen the discussion about a character in the novel they were reading. You can watch the ~2 minute video clip to get a peek at the process in action. For a less than five minute investment of your time, you will have some new ideas for incorporating online meeting chats into your lessons. Note: This idea is easily adaptable to other grade levels and curriculum areas.
Google Workspace (aka Google Suite)
Create Choice Boards Using Google Slides
A Choice Board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose how they will learn a concept as well as how to demonstrate that learning. The level of difficulty can vary or stay consistent throughout the board. Explore the examples at The Complete Beginners Guide to Choice Boards to see how other educators have set up choice boards.
Be sure to make copies of any of the templates you want to use!
Google Classroom - Originality Reports
iPads
Apple Professional Learning Virtual Conferences
Creativity for Kids Ages 4-12
Get your PK-8 students learning through creative activities using built-in features of iPad. The PDF documents can be used with students as is, or you can download and assign individual tasks using the images provided. Scroll down the page that opens to find the images.
Computer Science
Computer Science and Early Literacy
Get Started with Coding
Professional Learning Opportunity
Learn to Use Quizizz via a Self-paced, FREE, Online Course
Try a Quizizz Quiz - New Year's Trivia
Course - Quizizz - Student-paced, Formative Assessments (5 hour online course)
Quizizz is a free tool that allows you to conduct student-paced, formative assessments in a fun and engaging way for students of all ages. Questions and answer choices appear on each student's screen, so they can answer questions at their own pace, and review their answers at the end. Quizizz can be played by students using any kind of device with a browser, including PCs, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones.
It is very easy to create quizzes, plus you also have access to millions of public quizzes you can duplicate and edit for your use. Students can join a LIVE game or a Homework game with the quiz code shared by the Teacher. No student accounts required! You can access detailed class and student-level data for each quiz that has been completed. If you are a Google Classroom user, you can assign a Quizizz to your class with a single click!
If you would like to get started using Quizizz, sign up for this free, self-paced, online course. You will be guided, via video and text-based tutorials, through all of the steps needed to set up and use Quizizz. It is expected that it will take 5 hours to complete the course. This includes the time you will spend using Quizizz with your students. Note: To take this course for credit you need to be actively working with students in a classroom.
Begin and end anytime between now and March 22, 2021
5 SCECHs available for $10 processing fee
This course is available only to educators working in an Oakland County school.
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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