Google Sheets is a powerful tool in the G Suite line-up, but
it’s not all formulas, pivot tables, and data.
Google Sheets can become a fun, interactive learning opportunity with the
help of the Flippity add-on. With Flippity,
you can quickly and easily turn a Google Sheet into an engaging learning
activity for almost any content area.
The first thing you will have to do is install the Flippity
add-on for Google Sheets. You can get
the add-on by clicking here. Once you
have that, you can begin creating Sheets and turning them into fun activities
to use with your students. Flippity offers
15 different games, tools, and activities to use. For each one, Flippity provides a demo
version, instructions, and a template, so you don’t have to do much of the work
on your own besides plugging in your own content to customize each template.
Flippity is a great tool to bring some fun, engagement, and
interactivity to any learning activity for any content area. Plus, it is easy to use and (the most
important part) free. To learn more
about Flippity, please click here.
There is one skill that is absolutely valuable no matter the
future goals and careers of our students.
That skill is the ability to be an effective reader, writer, and
communicator. Communication skills
routinely top the list of attributes that employers seek in candidates. While students are still in K-12, having
sharp reading and writing skills will help them across all content areas. And maybe, just maybe, those skills will help
them to enjoy reading a good book for fun.
Teaching reading and writing is a daunting task given the
complexities of language and the diversity of students. Tack grammar onto that, and it gets even more
arduous. By their nature, these are difficult
and time-consuming skills to teach. Here
comes technology to the rescue!
Quill is a powerful, but easy-to-use online program that teaches
ELA skills in a personalized, adaptive, and real-world system. Once teachers create their classes on Quill,
they can assign units, lessons, and activities from ready-made materials that
are CCSS-aligned by grade. Teachers also
can see the names and numbers of the standards to narrow down what they want to
use. If teachers already use Google
Classroom, then they can create their Quill classes with only a couple clicks
as Google Classroom is fully integrated in Quill.
Then, teachers can give diagnostics to their students to see
which standards each student needs to address to become proficient. Quill will then automatically create individualized,
“just right” lessons and activities for the students to address weaknesses, but
teachers can also assign materials themselves.
Besides creating their classes on Quill, teachers do not have to create
anything else. Instead of creating and
correcting assignments, teachers can use their time to better understand their
students' ELA skills and simply assign them the lessons they need.
The lessons and activities on Quill are adaptive, adjusting
themselves in real-time to the answers of the students to provide personalized
exercises. Students also get immediate
feedback, help, and multiple tries when doing activities. Additionally, students can re-take lessons as
many times as they want.
Teachers get detailed reports with in-depth information on
their students’ performance on specific ELA skills and standards, showing their
proficiency percentage on each one.
Teachers also see which lessons and activities their students completed
and when.
I saved the best thing about Quill for last. Quill teaches ELA skills they way they are
supposed to be taught: within the
context of real literature and writing.
Quill does not teach these skills in an isolated, fill-in-the-blank,
multiple-choice form. Students work with
real written passages in order to gain an understanding of how language
actually works and how context, word choice, and sentence structure affect the
overall outcome. For example, if
students are working on subject-verb agreement, they not only have to correct
errors, but they also have to re-write the incorrect sentence and make sure
they use correct spelling and punctuation in the re-written sentence. Other exercises like figuring out how to best combine many ideas into one cohesive sentence or re-wording sentences for clarity are what set Quill apart and make it a comprehensive and effective learning tool. Quill provides an authentic, real-world, and personalized
way for students to learn ELA skills, and it makes it quick and easy for
teachers to use.
Quill provides five unique tools to teach ELA:
1. Quill Diagnostic – "Quickly determine which skills your students need to work on. The diagnostic covers vital sentence construction skills and generates a personalized learning plan based on the student's performance."
2. Quill Lessons – "Enables teachers to lead whole-class and small group writing instruction. Teachers control interactive slides that contain writing prompts, and the entire class responds to each prompt. Each activity provides a lesson plan, writing prompts, discussion topics, and a follow-up independent practice activity."
3. Quill Grammar – "Over 150 sentence writing activities to help your students practice basic grammar skills from comma placement to parallel structure. Activities are designed to be completed in 10 minutes, so you have the freedom to use them in the way that works best for your classroom."
4. Quill Connect – "Using the evidence-based strategy of sentence combining, students combine multiple ideas into a single sentence. They then receive instant feedback designed to help them improve the clarity and precision of their sentences."
5. Quill Proofreader – "Teaches students editing skills by having them proofread passages. Students edit passages and receive personalized exercises based on their results. With over 100 expository passages, Proofreader gives students the practice they need to spot common grammatical errors."
There is a free version that is comprehensive by itself. The paid versions offer more features and are
very affordable. Below is pricing information and a video about Quill.
Although the Internet as we know it has been around for over
25 years, it will always be a brave, new world to the latest generation of
children. The younger generations are
labeled as “digital natives”, having grown up with computers and the World Wide
Web at their fingertips. Yet, we must
not assume they are native digital citizens.
The digital world has its own rules, expectations, and customs that can
only be acquired and mastered through the guidance of those who know how the
digital world works. That’s us –
teachers, guidance counselors, parents.
We must welcome these new, young citizens to our digital land, and help
them to safely and successfully navigate its strange terrain.
Since this week is Digital Citizenship Week (October 16-20),
it is the perfect time to begin the journey to help students become respectful
and responsible digital citizens. We do
not have to go this journey alone as there are excellent resources to help us
teach digital citizenship. Since many
K-12 schools already use G Suite for Education, I will focus on Google’s
Digital Citizenship resources since they are easy to use and integrate.
The core principles that shape the lessons
and activities of the Be Internet Awesome program are:
Be Internet Smart – Share with Care
Good
(and bad) news travels fast online, and without some forethought, kids can find
themselves in tricky situations that have lasting consequences. The solve?
Learning how to share with those they know and those they don’t.
Be
Internet Alert – Don’t Fall for Fake
It’s
important to help kids become aware that people and situations online aren’t
always as they seem. Discerning between what’s real and what’s fake is a very
real lesson in online safety.
Be
Internet Strong – Secure Your Secrets
Personal
privacy and security are just as important online as they are offline.
Safeguarding valuable information helps kids avoid damaging their devices,
reputations, and relationships.
Be
Internet Kind – It’s Cool to be Kind
The
Internet is a powerful amplifier that can be used to spread positivity or
negativity. Kids can take the high road by applying the concept of “treat
others as you would like to be treated” to their actions online, creating
positive impact for others and disempowering bullying behavior.
Be
Internet Brave – When in Doubt, Talk It Out
One
lesson that applies to any and all encounters of the digital kind: When kids
come across something questionable, they should feel comfortable talking to a
trusted adult. Adults can support this behavior by fostering open communication
at home and in the classroom.
The Be Internet Awesome program offers a free, ISTE-aligned curriculum with well-designed and detailed lessons and activities. There is also a very fun and engaging game
that reinforces the lessons.
Here are some other great resources for Be Internet Awesome:
Finally, Google offers a free Digital Citizenship and Safety Course for teachers to help them better educate their students on staying safe
and secure online. This course takes
approximately 75 minutes to complete.
The Internet is a brave, new world for our children. It is paramount that we take the time to
teach them how to respectfully, responsibly, and safely explore this world that
is becoming a bigger part of our lives each day. The Internet is a community like any other,
and the better citizens we can be in our community the better we all will be
for it.
Finding interesting ways to bring history to life and make it relevant for students can engage and intrigue almost any learner. One of the more exciting ways to do this is through the use of primary resources, such as documents, photos, videos, and maps. The National Archives has a fantastic online resource that provides digital copies of these first-hand resources as well as pre-made activities you can use with your students.
DocsTeach is a service provided by The National Archives that curates, organizes, and supplies digital primary resources and activities to teachers and students for free. Once teachers register for a DocsTeach account, they can find, modify, and save pre-made activities as well as create their own from the thousands of primary resources available. The National Archives adds new resources all the time. The resources, documents, and activities range from lower elementary to high school.
Documents and resources are organized and grouped by historical eras, which are the ones included in the National History Standards. When searching, you can browse by era, media type, or search with keywords.
DocsTeach also provides seven tools that are designed to strengthen particular critical thinking skills.
Finding a Sequence: Putting documents/resources in chronological order
Focusing on Details: Doing a close reading and analyzing details
Making Connections: Exploring the relationship between events and the concept of cause-and-effect
Mapping History: Gaining a geographical context of history
Seeing the Big Picture: Matching resources that are related to one another in a concentration style game
Weighing the Evidence: Evaluating the strength of resources in proving a point
Interpreting Data: Assessing the source of a document
With DocsTeach, teachers and students can explore history and geography by bringing it all to life with interesting and interactive primary resources and activities. Here are some helpful guides from DocsTeach:
Sound may be one of the more captivating, moving,
and dynamic stimuli. A certain song can
instantly bring you back to a special moment in your life. A specific sound can make you calm or
alert. A soundtrack can heighten the
emotions and ambience of a film. I’m a
big fan of the composer Hans Zimmer, who has scored many
movies. When listening to his scores, I
can create a crystal clear mental picture of the movie scenes while also
experiencing the mystery or suspense of those sequences. I discovered an online service that uses the
power of sound and music to create an immersive, engaging, and creative reading
and writing experience. It’s called Booktrack Classroom.
Booktrack Classroom is an online service for teachers and
students. It provides a library of
e-books that contains soundtracks and sound effects to amplify the reading
experience. As you read, the score, ambient
sounds, and sound effects perfectly complement what is happening on the page. I found it absolutely immersive as the sound
sparked my imagination to better visualize and experience the story. Booktrack has smart technology that
automatically adjusts the score and sound effects to adapt to your reading
pace, but you can also manually increase or decrease the reading speed to
ensure the sound seamlessly matches the story.
Additionally, you can adjust the volume, pause it, and start the audio
back up again by double-clicking on a word if you want to re-read it or if you
lose your place.
Teachers can get a full-version account for free, but it’s
only available for a limited time. I
checked today, and this offer is still valid.
Once teachers have an account, they can create specific classes within
Booktrack Classroom, add students to it, assign individualized books to each of
their students, monitor and track their progress, and much more. These classes also integrate with Google
Classroom, so teachers can send anything in their Booktrack Class to their
Google Classroom. Booktrack Classroom also
keeps track of books you or your students want to read, are reading, or have
read in “My Bookshelf”. According to
Evidence-based Educational Outcomes in Literacy by the University of Auckland
and NYU, contextual soundtracks helped students increase comprehension by
17%. This study also found students read
for 30% longer and reported 35% higher satisfaction when reading with a
Booktrack. Now, here comes the coolest
part of Booktrack Classroom.
Students and teachers can create their own Booktracks for
any book in the Booktrack Classroom library.
For example, teachers can have students create their own Booktracks for
a chapter out of The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz. It gets even better. Students can create their very own e-books on
Booktrack Classroom. They can write
their own stories and choose from hundreds of professionally made music tracks, ambient
noises, and sound effects to match the mood and setting of their stories. Additionally, they can create a book cover and then publish it for others to
read and enjoy. There is much potential here
for the four Cs (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication).
I encourage you to read a book on Booktrack Classroom
yourself because the experience gave me a huge “Wow” moment. When my eyes came to the part in A Christmas Carol when the bell in
Ebenezer’s bedroom mysteriously rings, and then the sound of a bell rang while eerie music played
in the background, I was as shocked as Scrooge but in a good way.
Booktrack Classroom works on any computer, and it has an app for Android
and iOS. You can learn more about it
with these videos:
