Oakland Schools Digital Learning
May 2023
In this issue you will find
- lessons and activities for Star Wars Day
- an opportunity to celebrate "Day of AI" with educators around the county
- a link to a Virtual Gift Basket for Teachers that includes free access to four Virtual Escape Rooms
- a link to TEACHFLIX, a portal of over 500 free, educational movies recommended by teachers
- presentation links from Google EDU
- resources for teaching wildlife conservation to elementary students
- information about free articles for secondary students from ChemMatters magazine
- links for the presentations Google EDU did at the recent MACUL Conference
- a link to an Apple Keynote project for the end of the school year
- information about Microsoft Speaker Coach for PowerPoint and Teams
- a playlist of short videos to help your students learn and/or improve Scratch coding skills
- a Brain Break where students can virtually sculpt and glaze historical pottery
- STEM Career resources and a thinking routine from Discovery Streaming
- information about applying for a MACUL grant
- a link to our professional learning flyer for summer sessions and more
Please reach out if you have questions about any of the information in this newsletter.
~Laura and Vinos
Star Wars Day - May 4, 2023
May the 4th Be With You: Free Star Wars Teaching Ideas
Star Wars Day, May 4th, is a great time to turn the magical allure of the Star Wars movie franchise into fun and interesting lessons in the classroom. Check out the free Star Wars ideas, lessons, and activities below and then select one or two to try with your students.
- TPT Free Star Wars Lessons and Activities - Star Wars-themed word search, coloring pages, arts and crafts, arithmetic, STEM, and more. These are searchable by grade, topic, resource type, standards, and format.
- Star Wars Activities for Physical Education - Ever thought about using Star Wars to get kids moving? This collection of Star Wars-related activities are a great way for kids to enjoy healthful exercise such as dance, running, calisthenics, throwing, and more.
- Star Wars - Would You Rather? - A high-energy, feel-good exercise program that asks kids to choose between two Star Wars choices, then perform the indicated activity.
- Star Wars Lessons for the Music Classroom - John Williams’ Star Wars score is one of the best known movie themes of all time. But what about other avenues to combine Star Wars and music in a single, thought-provoking lesson? Teacher Jessie Powell, the force behind the popular YouTube channel Music and Motivate, provides a detailed narration of her favorite Star Wars music lessons. Visit her blog to learn more and download a free lesson.
- Not So Far, Far Away - A lesson about latitude and longitude based on Star Wars fictional planetary locations and their Earthly analogues. Students learn how filmmakers used various extreme Earth landscapes as the basis for other-worldly Star Wars scenes, then map latitude and longitude of the real-world locations. Includes follow-up questions.
- A wealth of Star Wars STEM activities can be found on Star Wars STEM Activities for May the 4th Be With You Science, from creating colorful lightsaber greeting cards to building robots from junk. Many of these super resources are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.
- This Star-Wars themed coding a galaxy activity from the Code.org folks includes everything students and teachers need to start block-based and JavaScript coding.
"Day of AI" - May 18, 2023
Join Oakland Schools and celebrate "Day of AI" on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. "Day of AI" celebrates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can shape our lives. Visit our "Day of AI" Presentation to learn more about AI and ways to integrate it into your practice and then take your learning one step further by exploring some of the tools and resources. Share information about and one image from your explorations and you will receive a book about AI in education to help you continue your learning.
How to participate:
Submit your "Day of AI" exploration information and select the AI themed book you want to receive to continue your learning journey. Note: Entries must be submitted by Monday, May 22, 2023.
Celebrate Day of AI and share your experience on social media using #osdayofai.
Digital Resources
Teacher Appreciation "Virtual Gift Basket"
Matt Miller of "Ditch that Textbook" fame has put together a virtual gift basket for educators. The basket contains a link to 100 free templates to use in class tomorrow, coupons for some of Matt's online courses, plus access to FREE virtual escape rooms. The escape rooms are very well done and contain everything you need to help your students be successful. Virtual escape rooms are fun, collaborative activities that will keep your students brains engaged in critical thinking all the time they are trying to "escape."
Use this link to access the gift basket and open it to claim the prizes you want to use.
Note: Click on items in the basket to display links and descriptions.
TEACHFLIX
TEACHFLIX is a portal with links to more than 500 videos that were collected by Matt Miller via teacher suggestions for what to include. The videos are sorted by grade level, subject area, and subtopic. When you open any of the videos, you will see a "worksheets and activities" button. When you click the button you will be asked to input your first name and email address. You will then have the options of choosing to get the items in three different formats - Google Slides, PowerPoint, or PDF. I recommend that you get the files that have students follow video viewing with things like write a "social media post" with one of the Google Slides/PowerPoint templates about what they just saw; do a brain-friendly "brain dump" of everything they've learned; write a quiz question with possible multiple choice answers; and more.
Resources for Elementary
Conservation Classroom
Conservation Classroom is a collection of lessons hosted on Smithsonian Learning Institute for learners in grades K-5 that connect students to animals and encourages wildlife conservation. Each lesson has four elements: wonder, engage, act, and connect.
In the Suited for Survival lesson, students explore different animal adaptations, engage with a live program to see adaptations in action in real-time, build their own animal, and meet Mimi, an animal keeper who looks at small mammal adaptations to provide the best care for the zoo's animals. Be sure to check out the Naked Mole-rat live camera on slide 16.
Resources for Secondary
ChemMatters Magazine
ChemMatters, ACS's high school chemistry magazine, helps high school students make connections between chemistry and the world around them. Issues are published monthly and in each issue one to three articles are accessible for free without a subscription. Check out the free online articles along with downloadable puzzles and Teacher’s Guides that contain reading comprehension questions and additional resources to see what will work for you and your students. Articles can be viewed on the website but are also available in PDF format.
Google Workspace
Google EDU Presentations
Facilitators from Google EDU did several sessions at the recent MACUL Conference. Following the conference they shared the links to the presentations from their sessions. Topics include What's New with Google for Education, Google Accessibility Features, and Teaching, Learning, & Creating with Chrome. The document "Google for Education at MACUL" contains the complete list and the links to the presentations.
Apple
30 Days to Remember
Meredith Benson recently posted "30 Days to Remember" in the Apple Teaching and Learning Forum. As you well know, the end of the year is quickly approaching and with the days being numbered, Meredith wanted to take some intentional time out of each day to remember the year and capture some of the special moments. To that end she created a Keynote template of image placeholders that she will share with her students. Each day they will take a picture in response to the prompt for the day and upload it their copy of the Keynote template. Prompts include a selfie, a friend, a teacher from your past, a goal you achieved, etc. You can access her post in the Forum and the Keynote template here. Note: You will need to login with your Apple ID to access the download.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft Speaker Coach - Available Now in PowerPoint and Teams
When students feel comfortable speaking in public, their confidence and academic performance often rise. With Microsoft Speaker Coach, your students can practice their presentations and receive immediate feedback about pace, filler words, pitch, repetitive words, and so much more. Following each practice session with the Coach, students will receive a custom report that highlight areas of strength and ways to improve delivery. Learn more about Microsoft Speaker Coach by reading this article, Strengthen Presentation Skills with Speaker Coach. Get a quick overview of how it works by watching the video below.
Makerspace
Scratch Coding Shorts
Mr. Fred from Get Me Coding has released a new set of YouTube Shorts (videos are less than one minute in length) that teach coding using Scratch. Whether your students are beginning or experienced coders, these Shorts will help them learn and improve their coding skills. Below is an example from the set.
Brain Break
Google 3D Pottery
On Google 3D Pottery, students click and drag with the mouse cursor to sculpt and glaze three different historical pots. Students receive a score for each finished pot. Information about the original historical pots is provided along with links to information about other pots that are not part of the sculpture activity. Students can get a link to their pots/vases to share their handiwork with classmates or family.
Discovery Streaming
Note: Discovery Streaming subscription and login required to access the resources in this section. If you do not know if your school has a subscription please email laura.cummings@oakland.k12.mi.us.
STEM Careers Channel - Grades 6-12
With the STEM Careers Channel, students can learn about fascinating STEM careers through resources like career profiles, student activations, challenges, classroom activities, virtual field trips, and more. Note: Be sure to click on the appropriate grade band level for your students.
SOS Strategy - "That Sums it Up"
"That Sums it Up" is a thinking routine that helps students distinguish the main idea and five key details of a video. Watch the short video overview and then open the PDF document for more details and a worksheet you can use with the strategy.
MACUL
MACUL Grants - a MACUL Tradition since 1987!
MACUL understands that there are many needs for today's modern classrooms and to help out with these needs, they have provided nearly $500,000 to Michigan Classrooms since 1987. This year you can apply for up to $1000 to use towards items that will help you implement an instructional use of technology. The application deadline is June 16, 2023. Click here to access more information and to apply.
Upcoming Professional Learning
Oakland Schools Digital Learning Team Information
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Oakland Schools Digital Learning Consultants
Laura Cummings
Laura.Cummings@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2283
Vinos Kassab
Vinos.Kassab@oakland.k12.mi.us
248-209-2229