New Features in Google Classroom Aid Differentiation & Notification
Use: Google Classroom users
Skill Level: beginner Google Classroom user
Google Classroom has a couple of amazing new updates that make differentiation and notification easier. Now teachers can push differentiated assignments to individual students through Classroom and receive notifications when students turn in work after the due date or resubmit work. Click HERE for more information.
Teaching Students to Recognize Fake News
Use: Secondary ELA and Social Studies
Skill Level: beginner
Fake news has been creating quite a stir lately. And that discussion has highlighted some interesting information about students including their difficulty in recognizing news and verifying the credibility of a news story. Social media feeds are replacing broadcast, radio, and print news for many of our students, so the necessity of teaching information literacy is increasing. Earlier this month The School Library Journal published an article outlining how teachers can help their students sniff out false news stories. Links to teaching resources are embedded in the article. For additional resources for teaching information literacy, check out my Information Literacy board on Pinterest.
Pinterest for Educational Bookmarking
Use: Curate and discover lesson plans and educational resources
Skill level: beginner
Somehow over the last four or five years, my use of Pinterest has evolved from mostly personal to mostly professional. The transition started innocently enough. I'd send a resource out to a teacher, and he/she would come a couple of days/weeks/months later and ask, "You know that link you sent me...." And I'd try to track down the resource. Pinterest to the rescue. I created boards for the content areas and a few other boards, and when I sent a resource to a teacher, I'd pin it on one of my Pinterest boards. Easy peasy to find later. Fast forward a couple of years, and now when I'm planning a lesson, Pinterest is one of my go-to spots to get inspiration. Check out my All Things Google board or my content area boards. Once you are signed into Pinterest, search sgroff2 (people). If you have a board for educational pins, please share your board HERE, and I"ll put together a list of active BISD pinners to share later this winter.
