Have you always wondered about Skyping with students but just did not know where to start? Wonder no more! Skype in the Classroom is an amazing resource of classrooms, experts, and digital field trips all waiting for you to connect with. Imagine how relevant learning would be if students were Skyping with real experts, real authors, real scientists! Break down your classroom walls and let the world in with Skype!
District 109 is proud to partner with Discovery Education, which brings exciting content to life through a variety of digital tools. Because Discovery Education has so much to offer, there are many hidden gems that need some exposure! Click here to learn more about Global News, On This Day, and Virtual Events for teachers and students. Many of these features would be a great way to pique students’ interest on a range of topics and give them opportunities only available to schools partnering with Discovery Education.
Many people often comment that gmail is an organizational nightmare. Many of us miss the simple folder structure from back in our Outlook days. The good news is that Gmail has a labeling system that behaves much the same way as Outlook folders. If your Gmail inbox is driving you mad, take a moment to watch this brief video to learn about adding labels to your emails, and learn how to filter messages so that they get the proper label automatically. Happy labeling!
Seesaw is a fantastic way for students to create a digital portfolio and independently document what they are learning in school. Through Seesaw, parents get a personalized window into their child’s learning, and students can give and receive feedback from their classmates. Check out the video below showing how much the students and staff at Walden are loving this new tool!
Creating a shortcut on an iOS device saves you time so that you don’t have to type in long email addresses that you frequently use for login purposes. This tip was hugely helpful for our K-2 teachers using iPads with their students. For the rest of you who are iPhone or iPad users, you may find this tip helpful to you too! Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do it!
Did you know that September 25th was National Comic Book Day? In honor of this underappreciated national holiday, we shared an article with District 109 staff highlighting the Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics. Comics can be used in virtually any subject matter and are a fantastic way to incorporate digital storytelling into the classroom.
Do you use comics with kids? Leave a comment below to share how you used a comic-creation tool in your classroom. We would love to feature examples for other educators to see!
On Wednesday, September 16th, the Northern Illinois Computing Educators (NICE) will host their first event of the school year at Caruso Middle School from 5:00-7:00pm. The annual kick-off event, known as Share-a-Rama, is the perfect opportunity for educators to show and share resources, apps and websites that will inspire them to try something new this school year! Check out the promo video below.
For any educators looking for support in their development, growth and use of technology in the classroom, NICE is a fantastic organization with monthly events taking place locally throughout the school school. Learn more about NICE by clicking here.
I completely take for granted this little skill that I use multiple times every single day: taking screenshots! If you have never taken a screenshot, I highly recommend using the Chrome extension called Awesome Screenshot. Once you give it a try, I promise you will find dozens of uses for it! Students love it too! The video below also gives a quick tutorial on how to take a screenshot on a Mac. Happy screenshooting! 🙂
When you publish something to the world, it is important to use a fair use image and give proper credit if credit is required. In District 109, we encourage our students and teachers to make publications public, so having a few sites available to gather fair use photos is extremely helpful! It’s time to ditch Google Image Search and think about some other sites that are free and fair use!
Summer is a great time to reflect, decompress, and re-energize for the upcoming school year. We hope everyone enjoys their free time while also taking advantage of a great opportunity to extend your learning just a bit during this time. Listen and watch to learn how five different members of the 109 family plan to take charge of their learning this summer!