Teaching with The New York Times

The Learning Network, The New York Times' education blog, is focusing this week on Great Ideas from Readers. This feature contains full lesson plans that utilize articles and information from The New York Times. Lesson ideas cover a variety of topics, including infographics, using columns as mentor texts, and argumentative writing.

PS - This may be another option for weaving informational texts into your classroom.

EdCamp Comes to SD!

FREE CHOICE PD!

Harrisburg will be hosting SD's first EdCamp on Saturday, September 20th. This "unconference" runs from 8am - 3:30pm. Visit their website here.

This week, the Harrisburg Ed Camp crew also sent out a few informational videos.
1. Explains what an Edcamp is
2. A little longer TED video about PD

Google Classroom Ideas and Suggestions

Ideas and Discoveries

*Post your daily agenda as an announcement. Include pertinent information such as: date, the essential question/goal, a brief list of the days tasks, etc. Then, attach files used during the class (notes, PPTS, handouts, etc.) This can serve as a one-stop-shopping-spot for absent students.
*When a student turns in a paper through a Google Classroom assignment, the student's version of the document is un-editable until you "return" the graded document. If a student needs to edit something before you grade it, he/she must undo the turning in, and then resubmit the document by clicking the "Turn In" button a second time. This will update the time-stamp showing when the finished document was officially turned in.

Suggestions for Google

Below are some suggestions teachers have shared about possible improvements to Classroom. I encourage you to send this feedback to Google as well; hopefully with many voices, they will listen to the feedback in a timely manner. (Your teacher dashboard and your class pages have a feedback button in the lower right hand corner.)

*Provide a "View as Student" button for teachers. (The student page is different than the teacher page.)
*Allow teachers to schedule future assignments by setting a future date and a specific time. Future assignments should remain hidden to students until the scheduled posting date/time.
*Provide options for alphabetizing student names, especially by last name. (Few teachers have a grade book set up with student names alphabetical by first name!)

USD's English Department: Colloquium Series on Literature

USD's English department offers a series of 1-hour lectures each year. They are free and open to the public. The hard part is that they are on Mondays and start at 4...which doesn't really bode well with our teacher schedules. I still wanted to pass along the information, however, on the off chance that somebody somewhere might be interested enough in one of the topics to find a way to make it work. Maybe you are compelled to take a personal day and travel to Vermillion for a pre-dinner lecture. Who's to say?
 

MLA and APA Paper Formatting Tutorial Videos

The USD Writing Center recently published four tutorials on YouTube. They are "How To" videos for formatting papers (headers, margins, etc.) in MLA and APA. Ranging from 11-24 minutes, the videos are a bit lengthy, so they may work best as resources shared with students or in a Blendspace type of activity.

Google Timer

If you ever need a quick timer during class, simply open a new Google search. Type "timer" into the search bar. The very first result should be a timer that looks like the above photo. It is automatically set to countdown from 5-minutes, and beeps will sound at the end. You may adjust the length of time by clicking on any of the numbers (hours, minutes, or seconds). Then type in the length of time you desire, including seconds. (For example, you have to enter 4 0 0 to set the timer at four minutes.) You may also turn off the sound by clicking the volume button in the top right corner of the timer. (Or, just must your projector or computer.) And, if you'd like the timer to be the only item showing on the screen, click the box image in the top right corner of the timer. Once you have it ready, click "start." If you are timing multiple pieces in a row, click "reset." This will reset the timer to your last settings. Only reset the time if you are ready to use it, though. It starts the countdown immediately.

Google Classroom Video

Google released this video midsummer, showing off a few of the features of Google Classroom. It's only two minutes; check it out if you haven't yet had a chance to play with Classroom. Google also released this short video where teachers who piloted the app last year shared a few thoughts.

Nap Time?

Feeling like this after the last two weeks?
 
 If you plan on napping this weekend to recharge for next week, keep these simple tips in mind:

Grammar Review

English Grammar 101 has made grammar practice and review interactive for you and your students. It offers six modules (Word and Phrase Patterns; Clause Patterns; Verb Tense and Verbal Patterns; Verb Forms and Sentence Patterns; Punctuation and Capitalization; and Supplement - Troublesome Words) that include information, practice, and quizzes over the topics. Students receive immediate feedback as they practice and take quizzes. This could be useful as beginning of the year review or as supplemental pieces as you teach grammar throughout the year.