TCEA Speaker Handouts are a Gold Mine of Professional Learning

Someday I would love to attend the TCEA Conference in Austin. In the meantime I will be digging through the absolute gold mine of presenter resources that is freely available on the TCEA site.

Thanks to Tony Vincent for sharing the link to these. At last count there were 529 different session resources posted. Tony's post today really opened my eyes to start making it a habit to go look for session resources from other great conferences held throughout the year.

TCEA 2018 Resources

Learning with Mr. Losik: Student Friendly Research Links

At my classrom site MrLosik.blogspot.com I just added a list of updated elementary level links for research. After doing some routine maintenance on the site, I discovered that many ofgoogle play store update my go-to links for years had bitten the cyber-dust or have been essentially left for dead. Here is a link to the updated list.

Check out: Learning with Mr. Losik: Student Friendly Research Links

Opportunities Abound in Relationships with Educational Vendors | MACUL Community

One late summer evening I was enjoying the company of several other educators who were all presenters at the next day’s large edtech conference. Somehow a little friendly razzing found its way in my direction. The other teachers in the group were giving me a hard time about all of the “corporate” ties I have.

Check out the whole article at the new MACUL Community: Opportunities Abound in Relationships with Educational Vendors | MACUL Community

Remix...Don't Reinvent STEM Lesson Plans

As I get ready to embark on my newest adventure of switching from an elementary Infotech teacher to an elementary STEM teacher, I have been doing a lot of lesson planning.

Luckily there are tons of STEM lesson plans readily available on the web. Some obviously are better than others but here is a list of the best ones I have encountered. Check them out.

CUE SteamPunk 

Sphero SPRK Lessons

Dash and Dot Curriculum

Polar 3D Printer Cloud 

Brian Briggs • Rock Star Drone Academy • Coding Playground

Engineering is Elementary

Cogniflex is a nootropic equation that guarantees to soar your fixation and lift your inventiveness utilizing research-upheld regular fixings. Here's our Cogniflex Review 2017. Cogniflex is a dietary supplement that comes in bundles of 60 cases. By taking two cases each day, you can purportedly appreciate nootropic benefits.

STEM Collaborative • 2

NC State: The Engineering Place

STEMpact: Lesson Design Resources • Sample Plans

Lesson Plan Template • 2

10 Ways To Stop the Summer Slide

The following was posted for my elementary kids on my classroom blog mrlosik.blogspot.com.  I am sharing it here to offer up some ideas teachers can use to help their own students avoid the "summer slide".

Don't let the last nine months of hard work simply slip away. Here are tens ways to keep the knowledge, creativity, and problem solving growing.

1. Read. Our local libraries are amazing places and wonderfully cool on hot days. Holland's Herrick District Library has lot of summer activities planned and so does the Saugatuck Douglas Library. The Kent District Library in Grand Rapids does too if your family is up for a little reading road trip. Best of all, they are all free. Another free online resource is the Michigan Electronic Library's kids section.

Your family can also sign up for Epic Books and have unlimited access to all kinds of digital books for your iPad or tablet. Think of it like Netflix for books with tons of the best titles like Big Nate and Bad Kitty. Epic is $4.99 per month and the first month is free. That's less than a pizza and whether you like fiction or non-fiction, there is something for everybody.

2. Practice Math Facts. Teaching and learning are a lot like playing sports. Professional football players don't just sit around all summer waiting for training camp. They are doing something everyday to become faster, stronger, and smarter. Whether it's running, lifting weights, or perfecting how to better cover a pass, they know without it, they won't be successful. The same is true with math facts. The more they become automatic, the more you can move on to more exciting stuff. Spend time on IXL and XtraMath this summer building your speed, strength, and brain. Here is the Blue Star IXL login.

3. Build Something. One of the main reasons we do math is so we can make cool stuff. Anybody can be a worksheet monkey but is really special to do something with your math skills. Whether you are just nailing wood together on a workbench or creating your own iPad speakers you have to be able to measure your pieces and solve equations. Check out Instructables.com and you will be amazed at all of the projects from simple to mind-blowing. Most even use things you just have lying around the house.

4. Get Outside and Explore. Did you know that in Michigan you are never more than six miles from water? West Michigan is literally one of the best places on earth to spend the summer. Whether it is a visit to a park, the woods, or the beach there are great places to explore just minutes from your house.  The Shore Acres Park near the Felt Mansion has all of that and more. Walk the trails and check out the different trees and then look for fossils, sea glass, and special rocks on beach. The Lake Michigan Rock Picker's Guide is a great book for identifying what you find. Here is a cool blog with some other information. Pier Cove, Westside County Park, Douglas Beach, and Laketown Beach are all free and close by.

5. Grow Something and Eat It. You might live on a big farm or you might live in a tiny apartment, but everyone has enough room for a flower pot or planter. Go big on a whole garden or just spend a buck or two on some green bean seeds and plant them in sturdy pot. Give them water and sun and soon you will have a beanstalk offering up a crisp healthy snack. Gardening Fundamentals  is a great place to start. Print out the journal to track your gardening.

6. Learn to Code. Why just play video games when you can learn an entire new language and build your own? Visit CODE.org and work on a couple of challenges like the Mindcraft, Star Wars or Frozen ones. If you get caught by the coding bug, keep going and try one of their 20 Hour Courses. There is something for every grade level from pre-school on up. Completing these courses will actually give you a nice boost on a career in computer science or set you up to build your own game.

7. Catch the Olympic Spirit. The world's best athletes are headed to Rio de Janeiro in August for the 2016 summer Olympics. Sharpen your geography and boost your knowledge by digging into the history of the games, researching your favorite athletes, and making the flags you find most interesting. Teachervision.com has a great site for getting started. NBC will provide hundreds of hours of coverage but you don't have to wait until August. Check out NBCOlympics.com now to learn all about what is coming up from Rio.

8. Play60. Just go outside and play. You don't have to spend money going to a sports or summer camp. It doesn't even matter if there are any other kids around either. Speaking of Olympics, set up your own events even if you just draw a line, pick up a rock, and jump as far as you can. Set the rock down next to where your back heel landed. Try to beat it. If you want to do some moving with a pro athlete, check out Washington Redskins' Ryan Kerrigan leading some agility activities from Discovery Education and the NFL. Getting creative outside is great for mind and body.

9. Go new places. If you have opportunity to take a trip, understand how lucky you are to be getting out and experiencing new places. Just paying attention to how the scenery changes or the importance of physical and human-created landmarks is the best social studies lesson anybody can have. Even if it doesn't work out for your family to embark on an epic journey just go somewhere different like a park you've never explored. Try to unplug as much as possible but if you are going to bring along a device use it to capture and then share the adventure. Here are some great apps for that.

10. Do Something For Someone Else. No matter what you do this summer, do something for someone else. The real reward is the feeling you get inside. I've always believed true friendship is true service so just randomly decide to help someone do something like empty the dishwasher or even clean your room without being told. The more you volunteer your time and talents, the more likely you will return to school in the fall ready to be the kind of kid that makes any school a better place to be.

Our summer vacation is something we can't take for granted. Find a nice balance of recovering from this school year, resting up for the next one, and finding ways to keep your brain firing while you make it the best one ever!

PBS Kids: Design Squad Explains Design Thinking

Here are the best six minutes and thirty seconds I have spent this school year when it comes to understanding and teaching the design process to my students.

You may not use the same D-Think vocabulary but watching these kids complete the steps it takes to address and solve a problem is a great tool for students to learn and internalize the approach.


In addition, the Design Squad section on PBSkids.org is loaded with more videos, full episodes of the series targeted toward preteens and teens, as well as creative problem solving games. Our fourth graders are not only excelling at the activities they are also applying the design process to other projects we are completing.

Epic, Brain Pop, and Seesaw Lead the Educational Migration to Apple TV OS

Just a couple of weeks ago it was hard for me to justify paying nearly double for the newest generation of Apple TV for classrooms compared to the previous generation. In my living room tons of great entertainment apps make the difference well worth the money. In the classroom there have not been many reasons to not just buy the cheaper model since Airplay is really  the feature most want.

My thinking is starting to change now that educational entities are starting to code for the TVOS platform. There is still a lot of space for growth but three key players are charting a course through these open waters.



Epic - Think "Netflix meets Childrens Lit." This great site is full of the latest children's fiction and non-fiction and is 100% free for elementary teachers and librarians. These aren't poorly made ebooks; they are digital versions of some of the most-loved and newest books on the market. With the AppleTV app teachers can display the book on the big screen and read it aloud to the class. No more sore arms and no more hearing, "I can't see," as you try to read a picture book aloud to the class. Several books even have a "read to me" feature.

BrainPop Jr. - Movie of the Week - BrainPop has been producing great non-fiction animated shorts for years and now has brought its K-3 focused "Brain Pop Jr. Movie of the Week" to TVOS. Check out a different one each week with included educational activities. BrainPop Jr. subscribers can also login and access even more content.

Seesaw - This digital portfolio suite is taking classrooms by storm and now it comes to the Apple TV.  Teachers can log in to their classroom accounts and share on a big screen examples of student work or create slide shows and galleries. Think of how cool that would be to have playing during conferences or parents' night. Parents can log in to the app at home and then be connected with their child's individual portfolio. Now there is a great way for kids to show off some accomplishments the next time grandparents come to visit.

There are other non-education-specific apps too that could lend themselves to the educational setting. Word Girl and Super Why are great programs available through the PBS Kids app and a number of virtual planetariums are now available on TVOS.

Let's hope that more educational entities continue to write for Apple's newest platform, further bolstering an argument for choosing the newest generation of Apple TV over the previous generation.

 

 

Fidgits: Fabulous Design-Thinking Problem-Solvers from PBS Kids

PBS has a great show called the Design Squad and with it comes a ton of fabulous challenges at PBSkids.org where users have to save little robotic creatures called Fidgits.

Teaching the design process has found a home at the core of a ton of my teaching in our elementary technology classes. "Fidgits" lets kids design their own fictional robotic creatures or perform a number of challenges to save Fidgits in danger.

How many challenges can you complete?

Although I use a pared-down version of the formal design process, I start in second grade at teaching kids that every challenge requires them to follow the design process.

1) Define the problem

2) Ideate

3) Prototype your solution.

4) Test

5) Repeat the process until it is perfect.

Fidgits is a great exercise for practicing that mindset.

Play now.

Amazing Pinterest Board from Apple: iOS Lesson Ideas for Teachers

Check out the following Pinterest board from Apple's App Store that is loaded with lesson ideas for using iOS apps in the classroom.

Get an Insiders’ Look at the the S.T.E.A.M. behind Madden NFL

Join Redskins Quarterback Kirk Cousins for an all-access pass inside EA SPORTS

Discovery Education, EA SPORTS, and the NFLPA have joined forces to give your middle school students an insider's view of EA TIBURON (where the magic of Madden NFL is created). Join the EA SPORTS Madden NFL: Football by the Numbers team to see S.T.E.A.M. in action: we'll meet the animators, producers, engineers, and designers who create some of the world's coolest games. You'll even get to see one student experience the motion capture process, with a special surprise result!

Good for athletes and mathletes alike, #MagicOfMaddenVFT is your chance to join Redskins Quarterback Kirk Cousins as we travel beyond the classroom walls and into the game!

April 14, 1:00 PM EST

Ask the Coach
Don't forget to submit your students' questions ahead of time and Kirk Cousins or EA SPORTS may answer them during the live event. Questions can be submitted HERE.

Prep the Team
Before the virtual field trip, explore a variety of educator resources at EA SPORTS Madden NFL: Football by the Numbers, including an educational interactive developed for grades 5-9.

Be sure to share why you're excited using #MagicOfMaddenVFT!

reposted from Discovery Education

Movie Making MacGyver Stuff - #EdCampOAISD #MACUL16

Here are links for my EdCamp and MACUL MacGyver video making sessions


iMovie Fifth Grade Book Reports

iOS Apps
iMovie
Keynote
Replay
Splice
Avid Pinnacle Studio Pro
Action Movie FX
Canva
Path On - Swipe To Type
DoInk

WeVideo
iCloud.com

Video Story Problems
Preserving History
Caterpillar Nurse Cam
Covering Hawkeye Sports

Shooting Gallery Level One from Jon Corippo

Practical example of using the Shooting Gallery

Formative Assessment/Screencasting
ShowMe app - ExplainEverything - Educreations

Only you  can prevent Vertical Video Syndrome


Green Screen Effects Folder - VeeScope Live

Dave Tchozewski - Green Screen Resources

Keynote Animation Project from Linda Dong

60 Second Tour of Kiddle.co - Kid Safe Search Engine

Parents and teachers rejoice! The best safe search engine for our kids is the new Kiddle.co. Not only are search results safe, they are from selected sites and prioritized by readability and depth. Icons are nice and big and image searches won't return any random inappropriateness. News and video results actually contain quality content that kids can understand and use.

A couple of disclaimers: Kiddle looks like a Google product but IS NOT owned or operated by Google. It runs off of Google's safe search. Also, it is not completely fool-proof. Some reports of questionable returns have popped up across the web. Thanks to Karen Bosch for sharing this article about that.

Let's just call Kiddle "the safest search engine yet". Always, always supervise searching and help kids evaluate the usefulness of search results.

 

Help Your Students Evaluate Credible Sources

Here is a Google Slides deck to guide your students through the evaluation of credible sources. To use it, simply access the slides here and then ask students to make a copy under file.

There seems to be some controversy out there about the value of Wikipedia. The way I approach it and explain it to students on that slide is that needs to be used with other credible sources but typically it can be very valuable. Taking a look at the history of changes in the Charge of the Light Brigade is a true eye opener as to all of the work the nerds who write these articles really put into accuracy and detail. I guarantee whoever wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica's article on the Charge of the Light Brigade did not do this much work.

The rest of the slides are pretty self-explanatory and we have a lot of fun with sites highlighting the plight of the Pacific Tree Octopus and whale watching on the Great Lakes.

#CUERockStar Black Label Day 2: Hook, Line, and Sinker

Here is an avalanche of links to activities and resources all designed to draw kids in and make them love learning. This list will grow as we work today.

MrLosik.Blogspot.com - My Classroom Blog - Make A Flake, Lego, Zimmer Twins, Lots More

Flocabulary

Kahoot.it

Shark Tank

STREAM School

Iron Chef Lesson Design

Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips

Discovery Education Corporate Partnerships

Coverning Hawkeye Sports

Shooting Gallery

Genius Hour

Genius Bar

Curriculum Nest

CUE Rock Star Black Label TOSA Camp: Teaching Kids to Learn Like Pros

 

Here are links and resources for my Day 1 session at the CUE Rock Star Black Label TOSA Camp.

Why Wait? Teach Kids To Learn as Young Professionals and Transform any School Experience Now.


Jennifer Magiera: Power To The Pupil

Business Insider: Most Impressive High School Graduates

EdHeads.org - Design a Cell Phone

Ottawa Area ISD - Future Prep Skills 4 Success

Blog Post: SPEND A LITTLE TIME ON DESIGN…AND GAIN A LOT

Bentheim Elementary 5th Grade Production Company Logos

Creativity Apps


Keynote

Canva

Neu.Draw

Adobe Photo Shop Color Effects
Adobe Photo Shop Mix

Penultimate
Pixlr-o-matic
Pixlr Express

PegLight 2
BitDraw

OpenClipArt.org
SoftIcons.com

Genius Hour: Hamilton Community Schools Genius Hour

Genius Bar in Your Classroom 



 

 

75 Days of Flocabulary for Free? Yeeaaaah Boooooooy!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="197"] What time is it? Time to sign up for a 75 day free trial of  Flocabulary.[/caption]

Here is something guaranteed to chase the winter blues out of your classroom. Check out full access to Flocabulary.com for the next 75 days for FREE!

Flocabulary is fabulous for building academic vocabulary in all of the core academic domains through high quality animated rap songs whose lyrics and concepts stick with kids.

Beyond the core subjects Flocab is expanding with some great coding and computer science videos as well as a life skills series featuring financial literacy and social emotional learning.

There is also no better way to cap a Friday than with the weekly "Week in Rap" and "Week in Rap Jr." current event videos.

Get your 75 Day trial started with this code. https://www.flocabulary.com/promo/WTMC2016/

It's "Madden For the Classroom" Eve! Sneak Peak of Tomorrow's Launch

It's one day away! Tomorrow Madden, Discovery Education, and the NFL Players Association launch their "EA Sports Madden NFL: Football by the Numbers" interactive site to promote math and science in the classroom through football.

Brandon Wislocki and I share our experience of getting to preview the site and the simulations. We talk ease of use and some of the key features of the offensive and defensive sides of the ball as we preview some of the core math and science skills being explored.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qWeQPJorpc&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

The Discovery Education blog posted its own previews with a couple of screen shots.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the official launch URL.

DiscoveringFarmland.com: 7 Tools For Teaching Where That Thanksgiving Feast Came From

As a huge chunk of our population sits down tomorrow and eats way too much, how many will think of the hours, dollars, sweat, and luck that went into producing the bounty in front of them? Probably not many.

Discovery Education and the United State Farmers and Ranchers Alliance have teamed up to help change that through a number of teaching and learning resources at DiscoveringFarmland.com.

Through video and print resources, the site is broken into four lessons (45-60 minutes each) that explore a wide array of farming and ranching topics that are important to not only the sustainability of the industry but also our food supply and the cultural heritage of farming and ranching that has been a part of America since its first settlers.

You might also really strike a chord with one or many of your students who are already passionate about farming or ranching like my former student and Hamilton (MI) Middle Schooler Nate Freyhof, "What got me interested in hobby farming was having a good environment and having fun playing outside instead of sitting inside all day. I also think gardening and training or working with animals is fun to do. It is sometimes good to have technology around like tractors to pull a plow or dig up something."

Steve Dembo recently detailed on the Discovery Education Blog some of the resources available and that the project is based around the award winning documentary Farmland by James Mol.

Here are 7 great things about teaching with the Discovering Farmland site.

1. The videos and the lessons really put a human face on farming and ranching. This is done visually but one whole lesson focuses untangling stereotypes.


2. The four lessons fit nicely into a variety of units. Teachers can spread it out to where they spend an hour per week on top of their prescribed curriculum. Think of it like Google 20% time where you step away from "what has to get done" for a little bit to supplement with projects based on interest or that might be especially impactful. Teachers could do two lessons a week and be done in two weeks or maybe full week is dedicated to a deep dive through the entire set of lessons.


3. Resources provided make these units ready to roll out, even if the teacher knows nothing about farming or ranching.
   
   
   
   • Teacher guide for each lesson
   
   
   • Student activity sheet for each lesson
   
   
   • Formative assessment exit ticket or activity for each lesson
   
   
   • Video snippets of the Farmland movie to support each lesson
   
   
   • Web links to extend the research and learning for each lesson
   
   
   
   


4. All lessons are vocabulary rich with words that fit into science, social studies, and technology.


5. Even though each lesson is well designed, each can be modified to meet more personal or curricular needs. For example, an economics class could research where its county ranks in terms of agricultural production or what the taxable value is on a 40 acre plot of farmland.


6. Discovering Farmland transports students who may have never left their own urban city limits to a completely unknown and almost foreign seeming part of our world. The virtual visit is one of the truly transformative things educational technology can do and this site and resources are perfect for creating those learning opportunities.


7. There are great resources already in place but there is still more to come from Discovery and the USRFA. Both are committed to showing not only how important our agricultural heritage is but how there are exciting high-tech careers to be had in farming and ranching. There is no food without farming and there is no farming without great science, technology, engineering, and math skills.

Somebody somewhere grew the potatoes, the turkeys, the cranberries, even the cinnamon for the apples sauce we will be feasting on tomorrow. Why not use the resources in Discovering Farmland when you return to the classroom and challenge your students to find out more about who and where our food comes from?

 

Lego's Build With Chrome Is Incredibly Simple, Incredibly Addictive

Check out buildwithchrome.com and make awesome stuff right within your Chrome browser. There is a lot to explore here but what I love about using it with my elementary students is that is an intuitive builder that doesn't bring in all of the distractions at the main Lego site does.

There are three basic sections and one can get lost for hours in each. The "Builder" section is just that, a 32x32 base plate and a big supply (They do run out) of 21 brick shapes in 10 colors . The "Build Academy" is a set of tutorial challenges hosted by characters from The Lego Movie that gradually build in difficulty and teach advanced techniques.

 

 

My favorite part though is in the "Explore the World of Builds" feature where through the magic of Google Maps a user when signed into their G+ account can stake claim to and build on literally any corner of the Earth they would like. So far I have rebuilt the swimming pool I spent most Arizona summer days in, have started work on a football stadium and spent way too much time on a late Friday Night/Saturday Morning resurrecting the greatest off-campus house ever, The Asylum, on its former corner on  the Hillsdale College campus. Yes, that is an ugly yellow couch out in front along the sidewalk. 

I have been a big fan of the Minecraft in the Classroom movement and some of the great ways teachers have kids show learning on the building/gaming platform. There have always seemed to be a number of setup hassles I didn't feel like tackling like setting up a server and getting student accounts set up. For me, this is way easier. There is far more familiarity for kids and myself with Legos all you have to do is go find some area where no one has built and take it over to start building the castle from Hamlet or the Great Hall from Beowulf.  All builds have links and anyone who is exploring the builds can find you and your students' creations.

Build With Chrome also works on the mobile Chrome browser. Maybe I just have fat and stubby fingers but it is much more difficult than the computer version.

Hour of Code: Learn Code With Star Wars and BB-8

The Hour of Code project has teamed up with Star Wars and it could not be any more awesome.

In lesson 1 learn to use blocks of code to program BB-8's movement and then dabble in some java script. Give it a shot and begin to build your own galaxy with code.