Teachflix

banner

If you are looking for a website that has curated education related videos, look no further. Teachflix has you covered. Just go here, click on the appropriate age group, content area, or just do a simple search by keyword. It is a fairly new site, so their library will grow as time goes on. Give it a try and see what you might come across that is useful and engaging for your students.

AI and the classroom

AI is going to find its way into education one way or another. Understanding what it can do for you as an educator is a great way to better understand the technology and prepare for both its use and misuse in the classroom. For instance, eduaide.ai is one such tool that aims to help teachers improve their classroom experience. Offering Google SSO, it offers an easy entry to the use of the tool. Log in, select your subject, select the appropriate grade level, then make a choice on how you want the site to help you out. They offer science, social studies, math, language arts, and enrichment options. With my ELA background, I chose language arts and middle school. I selected the Lesson Seed option, scrolled down, and entered one of my favorite novels The Cay. Tapped Add to Workspace, and tada! Lesson ideas for the novel that will be a huge help to beginner teachers and possibly shape some new ideas for veteran ones. This is what it provided me for lesson ideas:

Lesson Plan: “Exploring Themes and Characters in The Cay”

Objectives (scaled to Bloom’s Taxonomy):

  1. Remembering: Recall the main events and characters in The Cay.
  2. Understanding: Analyze the relationships between characters in the story.
  3. Applying: Apply critical thinking skills to interpret the themes and messages in the novel.
  4. Analyzing: Compare and contrast the characters’ experiences in different settings.
  5. Evaluating: Formulate opinions about the choices made by characters in the story.
  6. Creating: Develop alternative endings or solutions to the challenges faced by the characters.

Teaching Strategies:

  1. Think-Pair-Share: Students think independently, discuss in pairs, and then share their thoughts with the whole class.
  2. Socratic Seminar: Facilitate a student-led discussion by asking open-ended questions.
  3. Literature Circles: Divide students into small groups to independently read and discuss assigned chapters.

Cue Sets:

  1. Anticipation Guide: Present a series of statements related to the themes or character traits in The Cay. Students respond with “agree” or “disagree” before reading the novel.
  2. Visual Images: Show students images related to the setting and characters in the story to elicit their thoughts and predictions.
  3. KWL Chart: Activate students’ prior knowledge by asking them to share what they know about World War II and shipwrecks. After reading, they complete the “What I Learned” column.

Activities:

  1. Character Analysis: Students create a character profile for either Timothy or Phillip, including physical appearance, personality traits, and significant events in the story.
  2. Theme Exploration: In small groups, students identify and discuss the themes present in The Cay. They support their ideas with evidence from the text.
  3. Role Play: Students reenact a scene from the novel, focusing on a significant event or conflict. They analyze the characters’ motivations and reactions.

Assignment Ideas:

  1. Reflective Journal: Students write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the characters, discussing their experiences and personal growth throughout the story.
  2. Book Review: Students write a book review of The Cay, summarizing the plot, discussing their favorite parts, and recommending it to others.
  3. Creative Writing: Students develop an alternative ending to the story, considering how different choices would impact the characters’ lives.

Encouraging Real-World Skill Use:

  1. Research Skills: Assign students to research and present information about the historical context of The Cay, including World War II, racial segregation, and the Caribbean.
  2. Communication Skills: Engage students in group discussions and debates about the moral dilemmas faced by the characters and the author’s message.
  3. Empathy and Compassion: Encourage students to reflect on the experiences of the characters and consider how they would respond in similar situations.

Closure Questions:

  1. How did the relationship between Timothy and Phillip change throughout the story? Provide examples.
  2. What are the key themes explored in The Cay? How do they relate to real-world issues?
  3. If you were in Phillip’s situation, how would you have handled being stranded on an island with someone like Timothy?
  4. How did the setting of the story impact the characters’ emotions and actions?
  5. What lessons can we learn from The Cay about the importance of understanding and accepting others?

Now jump in there and try some of the other great options like Unit Plan, Rubric, Learning Target & Success Criteria, and more. I will highlight other AI sites I find interesting and useful in the future. Just be sure to review what it suggests and make sure it aligns with what your state requires and what is fitting for your classroom and students. AI can be helpful, but by no means is it perfect.

Google Tool Tutorials

Born out of at-home learning during the pandemic, this may quite possibly be the one of the most complete classroom Google tool guides you will find. You can click on any of the tabs to see the lineup of tutorials they have prepared and shared with you.

Thanks to Jinny Singo and Katie Garcia for so freely sharing this resource.

 

Multiple Copies of a Google Doc, Sheet, Slides

Ever have a time where you needed to make quite a few copies of a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slides file? Right clicking and “Make a copy” is nice, but not when you need a lot of copies of a file. Follow the video below to learn the steps in making multiple copies using a provided script. Don’t let the nerdy-ness of it scare you off. It really is a copy and paste process.

Making Appointments Slots in Google Calendar

Trying to schedule times to work with students either on the phone, face to face, or in Zoom, it can be tough making things fit everyone’s schedule. Google has always offered the option to use appointment scheduling in your Calendar, but the look has changed somewhat since I introduced it in 2015. Below is an updated video from Richard Byrne showing the steps. Worth the few minutes to watch to help with this year’s planning.

FYI from Google if you create your own Google Templates

Google logo
Hello Administrators,

Your organization has custom templates in the woisd.net Google Drive Template Gallery. We’ve phased out this gallery. To help make your templates easier to organize, you can now create custom templates individually in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. The old Template Gallery will be removed on or after February 15, 2017.

What you need to do

Before February 15:

You and your users should review the templates stored individually in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. For details, see Use your work or school template gallery.
If any templates that you need are missing, submit the templates. Any administrator can update template categories in the Google Admin console. Organizations with G Suite Business (formerly Google Apps Unlimited) can control who can submit and approve templates.
If I do nothing, what will happen?

Any users who try to access the old Template Gallery in Drive will be redirected to Docs and only see the templates that have been submitted.

If users bookmarked specific templates, will those stop working?

Bookmarked templates will continue to work, but we strongly encourage you to submit the templates so others can use them.

Can I control who submits templates for my organization?

Organizations with G Suite Business (formerly Google Apps Unlimited) can control who can submit and approve templates.

If you have additional questions or need assistance, please contact Google Support.

Sincerely,

The G Suite Team

Google Drive as a Backup Option

google_drive_logo

Saving/Backing up  to Google Drive

This is the quick way to do a one time backup of your files to Google Drive. It is not going to back up your programs. This will just store a copy of your files that you want to have a copy of saved elsewhere. (NOTE: If you prefer to constantly have your files backed up to Google Drive automatically, install Google Drive on your computer and start saving all of your content into the folder it adds to your computer. This will give you a copy on your computer and an exact duplicate on Drive.)

Easiest Method:

Go to http://drive.google.com

If you are not logged in already, log into your school account.

Click on New

Click on Folder Upload

Select the folder you want uploaded (Documents, Pictures, Music)

You can only upload one folder at a time. Whatever is in that folder will upload.

Click Upload (progress meter is in bottom right corner)

Repeat for additional files/folders.

 

If you want to upload everything at once:

Create a new folder on your desktop with an easy to remember name like the current date (Control click on the desktop and select New Folder)

Put all of the folders and files you want to save into that folder (Documents, Photos, Music, etc)

Go to http://drive.google.com

If you are not logged in already, log into your school account.

Click on New

Click on Folder Upload

Select the folder you want uploaded

Click Upload (progress meter is in bottom right corner)