EdTech@NSCDS
All the Tech & Innovation News You Can Use • Issue #18
EdTech@NSCDS News
Here's the 18th issue of EdTech@NSCDS, an occasional newsletter for the faculty at North Shore Country Day! Back issues can be found here.
News
- Go on a learning voyage! Sign up by April 12 for site visits to area schools. All North Shore faculty and staff are welcome to participate.
- Do you need support with using our laser cutter? Fill out this form and the IT department will work with you.
- Congratulations to our new Apple Teachers: Lee B., Austin G. , Ann G., Alejandra M., Dana S., David K., and Ty S.! Way to go!
- Send me a copy of your Apple Teacher certificate when you've completed either the iOS track or Mac track. All North Shore teachers are required to finish one track by August 2019.
Reminders
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Recommendations from the Road
Recently, several faculty members have attended the Illinois Computing Educators, EdCamp North Side, the ASCD conference, and the Consortium for School Networking Conference. The following are resources worth sharing with the North Shore community.
From Jeff Shaw
- Learning Ally and Bookshare are two sources of ebooks and audiobooks designed to support struggling readers. YouTube 360: YouTube has many videos in a 360-degree format for immersive learning experiences. Just search for your topic and apply the "360" filter. (Lucy's note:
- YouTube 360: YouTube has many videos in a 360-degree format for immersive learning experiences. Just search for your topic and apply the "360" filter. (Lucy's note: See this example search for geography videos.)
- Wonderscope app: This app turns your classroom into an interactive adventure as students interact with engaging virtual characters.
From Carissa Clark
- Pear Deck is a must - great for any grade and any subject area.
- Edpuzzle, Thinglink, Peergrade,Dotstorming, Smore, Tall Tweets were all things I think colleagues might enjoy using. (Lucy's Note: See this example that contains directions for making a GIF from Google Slides using Tall Tweets.
- Excited about exploring with AR/VR some more - great for history/art classes and then for scavenger hunts in other subjects.
- Microsoft Translator - free and will be GREAT for parent conferences
- Smashboardedu.com - great for middle school and could be awesome for some house activities
From Caitlin McLennan
App and project recommendations from Caitlin include:
From Lucy Gray
Here are a few tools and resources from the three pd events I attended in the last month.
- Teachers Try Science - lesson plans, strategies and resources the teaching of STEM
- News Literacy Project - a national nonprofit with media literacy programs
- Gurnee School District 56 1:1 iPad Initiative - an iBook telling the story of innovation at a local K-8 district
- Not Your Grandma's Lit Class - a presentation an English teacher at the Illinois Computing Educator conference that's full of ideas and resources
- Rewordify - a vocabulary and text simplification tools
- Flippity - Flippity works with Google Sheets to create a huge variety of activities
- Toodledo - a productivity tool
- Mapting - an app that promotes action towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
- National Geographic Learning Framework - NatGeo's recommendations of the attitudes, skills, and knowledge that students should achieve.
- Resources from the Global Leadership Summit - a collection of tweets and resources from the Global Leadership Summit
- San Francisco Unified School District's Graduate Profile - As a way of setting goals for the district, SFUSD has created a profile of a graduate of their schools. I've noticed several schools creating similar profiles as an addendum to strategic plans.
GLOBAL COLLABORATION
Upcoming Opportunity: No. More. Plastic.
This educator, Koen Timmers, runs amazing global projects and has a new one launching in April. Register here for more information about the student-centered No. More. Plastic project.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Notes from visiting learning spaces in #Helsinki, #Finland. It was an excellent trip from start to Finnish!
My friend Karen Blumberg teaches at the Brearley School in New York, and this excellent post recaps her spring break adventures in Finland. What can we learn from their successes? Check out her post here.
Library Maker Space at Fountain Valley School
Another friend, Toni Olivieri-Barton, is the librarian at the Fountain Valley School in Colorado. The first floor of their library has been converted into a maker space, and Toni has documented this reimagined space here. She used Adobe Spark to create this document.
Digital Citizenship Cheat Sheet: 5 Important Steps For Teachers
Fostering digital citizenship is essential in every modern school. In this post on the Flipd blog, recommendations are made for thoughtfully using technology and for framing conversations with students. Incidentally, Flipd makes an app that addresses distraction issues. (I have not tried it yet, but will be downloading it shortly!)