FREE REMC Virtual Courses for April

The REMC Virtual Courses are free and open to Michigan school personnel. You can take courses “just to learn” or complete the course and assignments and earn SCECH credits. 

All the courses are facilitated by Michigan educators.  They last three weeks and consists of two one-hour webinars and four to eight hours of resource review, assessment development, discussion boards and written reflection.  SCECHs range from 6 – 10 depending on the course.

These courses provide a convenient way for education professionals to connect and collaborate while reducing time and expense. Our courses are available throughout the school year and are open to all Michigan school personnel. Best of all, all our courses are free and offer free SCECHs when completed.

Seven courses begin on Monday, April 8.

Each course is open for three weeks and consists of two (2) one-hour webinars and four (4) to eight (8) hours of resource review, assessment developments and written reflection. SCECHs are available, ranging from 6 – 10, depending on the course.

  • Here are some suggested options:
  • Literacy Instruction and Technology: Foundational Elements, Level 1
  • Inquiry & Questioning: Igniting Student Curiosity with Technology, Level 1
  • Media Literacy: Fake or Real
  • Authentic Student Learning & Gamification
  • The What, Why, and How of Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • Social Media: Professional Development through Social Media, Level 1
  • Dynamic Presentations

Please click this LINK to navigate to the course offerings.

Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit 2019

The first annual Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit will engage participants in the maker mindset of “learning through doing” and ways to expand maker and STEM opportunities for students. Attendees will learn from educators who successfully integrate making into their teaching. They will explore maker-centered tools and trends, gain valuable resources, collaborate with maker-minded educators, and learn about partnerships available across the state to help build capacity for hands-on learning. If you’re interested in the maker movement and finding new ways to infuse hands-on learning within your classroom or school, then the 2019 Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit is for you. 5 SCECHs available.

Learn more and register here: https://www.smore.com/7a2pm

Increase grading and assessment productivity with Google Docs rubric tools

Orange Slice: Teacher Rubric

Easily and quickly make rubric selections and convert the Analysis or Holistic rubric into a percentage or points grade.

Teacher Rubric is an add-on that will increase your grading productivity and it professionally presents a scored rubric and grade for your students.

Google docs and Classroom are fantastic applications to create, distribute and receive submitted assignments from students. However, the grading process seems to bring the efficiency to a screeching halt. Where can the grade be placed so it stands out from the assignment? How can rubric selections be made easily? I like rubrics but the final grade can be tedious to calculate. It takes too many highlights, clicks and time to format grades on 125 submissions.

OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric increases the teacher’s grading productivity by eliminating repetitive clicks, presenting the rubric selections in an easy to use format and presenting the final grades in a consistent, professional format. More time is created for the teacher to provide the needed constructive feedback their students need for success.

Get Teacher Rubric here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/orangeslice-teacher-rubri/hfbffoacepkeklpippgijnoemfmiondo?hl=en-US

Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peeiWmHs1g

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CoRubrics

CoRubrics, an add-on for Google Sheets helps teachers in the assessment process. It is used to assess students (or groups of students) with a rubric designed by the teacher and also allows students to assess other students (coevaluation).

CoRubrics automates the entire process. First, teachers design the rubric they want to use in Google Sheets, then they add the students’ names and their email address. (These can be imported from Google Classroom). Once this is done, the add-on will:

  • Create a Google Form with the contents of the rubric.
  • Send the form to the students by email or simply provide the link to the teacher.
  • Process the data once the form is filled out (by the students or by the teacher).
  • Finally, send the results to the students (each student receives only their results) with a personalized comment.

In addition, CoRubrics allows:

  • Insert comments when answered.
  • Allow Co-evaluation, self-assessment and teacher assessment with one link.

Get CoRubrics here: https://corubrics-en.tecnocentres.org/home

Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hAPkbdm29Q

Bring History Alive with DocsTeach

DocsTeach is an online tool developed for teaching with documents from the National Archive. It has a rich access to thousands of primary sources  — letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos, and other document types — spanning the course of American history. We’re always adding more!

Borrow from an ever-expanding collection of document-based activities created by the National Archives, and teachers around the world. Copy and modify activities for your students.

Create your own activities using the online tools. It’s as simple as: (1) selecting a tool, (2) choosing your primary sources, and (3) customizing instructions. Learn more > 

UPDATE: Remind WILL Work with Verizon After January 28, 2019

Remind previously announced that their service would no longer work with Verizon after January 28, 2019 due to increased cost of Verizon text messaging services. It appears that Remind and Verizon have come to an agreement, which will prevent any interruption to Remind notifications sent to Verizon customers. While this is good news for now, we encourage staff to promote the use of the Remind app for notifications to avoid any potential future interruptions to text message notifications.

For additional details, please visit: https://www.remind.com/blog/verizon-update/

How to Create a Self Grading Quiz in Google Classroom

This resource comes from Richard Byrne. Richard is an Edtech expert and former High School social studies teacher. He is the lead author of https://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Use Google Classroom and Google forms to your advantage with creating quizzes that can be auto-graded. When students complete the quiz you will get a Google Sheet of all of the student’s answers and their scores from the quiz. And because it was created in Google Classroom, it will also allow you to assign a particular due date.

Enjoy!

Free Alternative to Microsoft Office: Libre Office

In case you haven’t noticed, there is an icon on your ProBook desktop that is labeled LibreOffice 6.0.  When you double click on the icon, you’ll quickly see that LibreOffice is a fully featured office suite that is very capable of delivering a desktop publishing and spreadsheet experience every bit as robust as Microsoft Office, when you need tools that are different than the Google’s G Suite.  Here’s a quick in introduction.  We think you’ll find that it is intuitive and easy to use.  For the getting started guide, click this link: https://documentation.libreoffice.org/assets/Uploads/Documentation/en/GS6.0/GS60-GettingStartedLO.pdf

Be Internet Awesome(3rd-Adult)

Be Internet is a digital citizenship tool that was developed by Google to teach and prepare kids to use the internet in a safe and meaningful way. This site has videos, resources, and an interactive game called INTERLAND. Where kids can immerse themselves in different worlds and learn about including, What is ok and not ok to share online, discerning what is fake and real, security, cyberbullying, etc. Resources and games are intended for 3rd grade through Adults.

Site:

https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us

Why Google Sites is the Jack of All Trades

The New Google Sites is an amazing tool to use with students, and its simplicity is unparalleled when looking for a modern tool to help students create modern content that demonstrates their learning.  It is also a great way to share content as an educator and professional, as demonstrated by the following examples: https://sites.google.com/tcsnc.org/new-gsites-ncties17/teacher-sample-sites

One great way to use the New Sites is for student portfolios where students curate their accomplishments throughout the year.  Sites are easy to use, present very few barriers for students to use them, and teachers can get up and running quickly with minimal tech skills. Check out this video on using them for student portfolios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0NLXn-LYDU

To learn more about exciting Google Sites updates coming in the future, check this out: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/google-sites-improvements-new-roadmap.html