Spotlight Series: Student Engagement Ep.1

What engagement strategies do you use? Watch the premiere of the spotlight, a short film series that illuminates the work that teachers do to engage their students. Featured in this episode is Dustin Ecker, a 4th-grade teacher at Grassy Creek Elementary School in Indianapolis, IN. This series will shine a spotlight on nominated teachers that others felt exemplified student engagement in the classroom.

Alternative text in Google Slides

Add accessibility by using the alternative text feature in Google Slides.

If you have students using a screen-reader, you will love this feature.

Work smarter with the new Priority page in Drive

Hummingbird Robotics in PE/Health!

Middle-school teacher Brett Slezak used the Hummingbird in his PE/Health class to model joints with robotics!

Finch robots and fourth graders

Elementary-school teacher, Elissa Hozore, showed how animals respond to their habitats with the Finch Robot in this NGSS-aligned Animal Adaptations project.

Have you updated your Google Skills recently?

For the past six years, educators have come from the tri-state region to improve their Google skills set, will you be one of them this August? In the beginning, we were teaching the basics, not many schools had embraced the Googlesphere, and there was much catching up to do for those just adding Google Apps for the first time. Over the years, we have watched our teachers wholeheartedly take up the tools, connect their classrooms then turn to us for guidance on using G-suite efficiently and in line with the best pedagogical practices. In turn, they became some of our best presenters! With 16 recent titles and Dr. Michael Salvatore, Long Branch Superintendent of Schools, as our keynote speaker this year, teachers are sure to find sessions that will galvanize their classrooms to the next level of technology integration.  We look forward to welcoming back our past participants and our new attendees.  Register here!

Newsletter-January

Check out all the upcoming workshops, programs, and conferences we have! Our latest newsletter is live! Some of our featured programs include Google Classroom Kickstart and G Suite for Professionals in the K-12 Front Office with John Sowash. We also encourage you to check out The Coding Teacher Certificated Series, and our free 15-hour course on Sheltered Instruction. Go ahead, open the newsletter and register today!

Newsletter-January

MakerSpace Mondays-Quilling Hack

So many of our makers love to create 3D paper flowers.
With quilling tools running about $7-$10 a pop, it can get expensive if you want your whole class
to make flowers at the same time. Our quilling tool hack is in the video below...get making!

Another problem encountered during 3D flower making is burnt
fingers from the glue gun.  We have seen these on Amazon, if anyone knows of a
less expensive hack, let us know,
we will post it!

Come to a MakerSpace Monday and learn more hacks...

CS Ed Week-Stories from New Jersey Schools

Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science. Jennifer Bernardini's 5th-grade class and STEAM Club students and the 7th-graders from William Davies Middle School were very enthusiastic participants this week!

5th Grade students analyzed a novel with a plot pyramid, and used Ozobots to trace the plot pyramid and tell the story! STEAM Club students participated in the Hour of Code with Code.org Dance Party. First, we coded, then we partied!

Not only does computer science provide every student foundational knowledge, but it also leads to the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy. William Horner's 7th-grade class also brought the CS Ed Week excitement to their Lego town Ozobot Project in the Hamilton Township School District.

Assessing Microbit Programs and Grading in Google Classroom

Assessing Microbit Programs and Grading in Google Classroom is easy if you have your students use the add file option in the "turn in" portion of Google Classroom. Teachers can grade if they download the student's hex files and import them into the Makecode.microbit.org simulator.

Import student files!

Watch this helpful video if you have any questions.

Kim Mattina (@The_Tech_Lady) shows you how to get it done!

Another solution is to have your students screencast their simulations and submit their video files.  Either way, these performance-based assessments are super-engaging!