Hope that Helps

Access to Khan Academy is such an exciting opportunity for our students!  We will surely have more to talk about once students start using it.  One of my favorite things about Khan is the clear video coaching for instruction before questions, but also for "oops, you missed that one, watch this to see if you can figure it out next time" Need a refresher from Roy's training last month? Here are his slides ( Google Slides ) or look at the bottom and flip through. For example, slide 25 shows how to assign a course mastery goal for your students. For 3rd-8th graders This is a required asynchronous math task daily and our students math aptitude with reflect their efforts! If you need a reminder about how to sign into your account whether you already have an account or not, this doc shows the steps.  (It is the same one you will find on the padlet shared in training. I linked the padlet at the bottom of this post.) For 2nd graders It is not required for 2nd grade, but it is an ...

Hello to my favorite TK-2nd  grade teachers in the whole world!  Some of you are seasoned pros, and some of you are new to the grade level.  Welcome to all of you! In this post, I want to remind you how your students will access Seesaw on their iPads.  I want to tell you-- - even our 4 year olds can do this. You might have to go slowly, but please. Empower them. Coach them. Help them and their families learn how to do this.  It is the whole "teach them to fish" thing, you know what I mean? Your class will automatically be built through Clever. For some it has been, for some, automation is being. a stinker. There are a few potential reasons, and none of them are personal.  We want your class to be ready for you. Thank you for your patience and for letting your families know we appreciate their patience, too. Steps for students 1. You will have your students go to Clever on their iPad 2. The will sign in with Clever (their 300#) OR with their Google account ...

One benefit of our TK-2 Seesaw and 3rd-8th Google Classroom focus is that it is considerate to our families, giving them one clear place to see expectations.  All work should start in your designated platform.   Daily/Weekly schedule There are many ideas out there, here is one. And, Google Slides makes it SUPER easy to update each day or week.  Here is a template for a schedule (inspired by Tait Rains, check out the Engaging Organization Collab-a-rama TST on Mission Control) I am not sure how this idea would look in Seesaw...yet... but if you use a Google Doc or Google Slides for your agenda then add it to your Google Classroom, you will be able to update the file and the update will show for students. So, I would have one Slide deck that is published and another slide deck that is a draft with my working ideas.  Then, I just copy the day/week into the published Slide deck when I'm ready for students to see it. Is that confusing?  Maybe... I know that som...

Hi there!  Google Classroom is going to be such a helpful way to organize your communication and your assignments for students. Although I am not able to process and post videos right away, I hope the Google Slides of the TST presentations are helpful to you.   Mission Control (go to  the Blast Off page  of the site) is always ready for you with videos from the spring.  Recordings of my sessions, sure, but the good stuff is in the collab-o-ramas where you can hear how teachers use tools in the classroom.  The slides and videos are on the Mission Control page Last week we had two sessions. The first was designed for people brand new to Google Classroom to understand how it works in general, and the second session, we looked closely at Assignments, checking student work and giving feedback. Session 1 ( Google Slides ) and Session 2 ( Google Slides ) if you like the slides links, or you can flip through them below. If you want to know more about Google Cl...

Clever-- some of you are Clever pros and some are just experiencing the glory of Clever for the first time. Let me offer some information to help. FIRST--- I want to let you know that when a system is updating and automating, it is sometimes not accessible to the user. THIS MEANS that you might try to access Clever right now to see what I'm talking about and it won't work, or tell you that you can't sign in or something.  Please give our resident ninja Mel and Clever some time and try over the weekend before putting in a tech ticket because something doesn't work. But I do want to share some details that might help. What is Clever? Clever is a Single Sign on service that allows students to sign through once, then it passes them through to another program already signed in.  These services are in a category called Instant Login.  We are also able to add shortcuts (in the Shortcut category) that are just bookmarks, but probably won't sign the student into the link. Cl...

If you are a teacher who used Seesaw in the spring of 2020, how much did you learn to love Seesaw?  If you hadn't used it before, you surely saw it's value in distance learning times!  A few details to share, and this seemed like the easiest way.  I hope this helps. You can leave comments in this blog post if you have questions, then I can answer, or someone else who has an idea can, and it's good for everyone. Please do sign in with Google if you comment so I can help you) Last year's classes in Seesaw Those will all need to be archived.   IF YOU CREATED THE CLASS, you do that your self.  This Help Desk post explains how in easy steps. IF THE CLASS WAS CREATED IN CLEVER, we archive that through the admin console, and it will happen today (Th 8.20.20) TK-2nd grade classes Your classes will be built through automation in Clever. You should see them by Monday morning.   I will be creating a one pager for how to access Seesaw (update--it was emailed...

 Hi there!  I always love sharing Seesaw, especially with our Preschool-2nd grade teachers!  It is such an age appropriate place for student learning, it is one you will use well this fall and beyond, even when we are back to face to face instruction one day in the future. Although I am not able to process and post videos right away, I hope the Google Slides of the TST presentations are helpful to you.   Mission Control (go to the Blast Off page of the site) is always ready for you with videos from the spring.  Recordings of my sessions, sure, but the good stuff is in the collab-o-ramas where you can hear how teachers use tools in the classroom.  The slides and videos are on the Mission Control page Last week we had two sessions. The first was designed for people brand new to Seesaw to understand how it works in general, and the second session, we looked closely at how Activities are a nice way to manage student tasks and work. Session 1 ( Google Slid...

Here we are!  The last TST of the summer season, and it's a fun one!  Flipgrid is such a great way to engage students in a fun way and get them talking.  Start with some "low cognitive load" tasks to play with the tools.  Prompts like "what is the best vegetable" a "would you rather" will get them playing.  As they learn the tools, give an academic prompt.  Flipgrid is great for vocabulary practice or other ELD skills, reading reflection, content questions that have open ended answers. Here are the slides for our TST today. ( Google Slides ) Want to try it out?  Use this link to our trial Flipgrid-- it's the one that I emailed participants. Open link by clicking here  or on an iPad, use join code 1bda5eec in the app. Sign in with your Google Account and give it a try!  I dare you! (Hueneme teachers only)

Screen recording is such a helpful tool for your asynchronous learning time.  Make videos to show instructions and routines, to talk through weekly lessons, of use the webcam to make your morning message video.  Screencastify is also a fantastic tool to start building a library of mini-lessons.  Imagine reviewing student writing, and you know a student could benefit from a "strong verb" reminder, and you have just the 3 minute video!  Head to your Google Drive Screencastify and get the share link for that video.  Put the link in the comments on their Doc and in 30 seconds of work, you have given meaningful feedback that will have an impact on the student!  Need more idea?  Here ( Google Doc ) are 50 of them!  As a Hueneme teacher, you have Unlimited Screencastify access for the 2020-21 schools year.  Enjoy! Here ( Google Slides ) is the slide deck from the August TST.  Or flip through them below. UPDATE---  *** After you are signed ...

Howdy!  It seemed like such a cool idea to have a quick comparison of Google Meet and Zoom, and then I realized it is a lot to get my head around! There are so many possibilities and I don't have all the answers.  But I know, between us, we probably have plenty of good ideas and experiences.  So, here are the slides as a starting point. Feel free to leave your tips and other things that have been working for you in the comments below. Top image from Pixabay Slides template from Slidesmania.com Gifs in presentation from giphy

How many times have you thought of the things you are not?  I do it more often than I wish I did. So, as I keep wresting with the most efficient way to get answers and share resources, a blog seems to be the thing that makes the most sense.  Sending tech newsletters is good, but it is hard to refer back to.  Answering emails is great, but that means helping one person at a time. Sometimes that is necessary, and I do love email, but maybe pointing you to a blog post will help get all the info you need efficiently-- without the email back and forth conversation. But.... I'm not a blogger.  Yet.  Darn that growth mindset... So, here is my suggestion--- subscribe to the blog and you will get emails when I put up a post.  I promise I will make the post titles clear and not fancy so you will know if it is useful to your or not.  If it is, read it!  If it isn't, delete the email and move on.   Do I know how you subscribe to the blog?  N...