Get TechEd Up in PUSD : 2017

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Hour Of Code December 4-10

Hour Of Code Week Resources

Tynker has made it extremely easy this year to have an amazing Hour of Code event by creating a seamless student and teacher experience. In just five minutes, teachers can create their classes, add students, and then students access the Hour of Code from right inside the Tynker dashboard!

More Hour Of Code Fun

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Digital Citizenship Week Resources - October 16 - 22 #Digitalcitizenship

Take The Pledge

Check out some new resources from Google's "Be Internet Awesome" and The California Department of Education

Elementary Secondary

For More Lesson Plans, Games and Resources

Sunday, August 27, 2017

English Language Lessons Text Set for TK-5th grade

Do you have students in your classroom who are new to English? The following text set is a great resource for them to explore, play, and practice their language development in your classroom and at home.

The text set is linked with a variety of websites which include sound, video, images, and printed text for optimal learning. Bookmark the doc or post the custom URL bit.ly/englishlessonspusd so students can independently open the document. There is no need to sign into a Google account or any of the sites linked on the doc.

When I preview the sites with students, I use the time to informally assess their skills in reading, listening, speaking, and even tech skills. I help them with scrolling, clicking and figuring out where to access the activities, holding back on giving too many directions and seeing what they can do first. I ask the students to practice saying the words and sentences they are hearing and seeing. They can explore the sites in any order. Some have many layers and other activities that they can use as well.

This text set can be a valuable tool for you as well. When spending your direct instruction minutes with your language learners, it is a great place to have conversations, lessons, and quick assessments for the language skills they are working on. For example, one student was watching the video about colors, reviewing the names of colors. I asked her what her favorite color was and she quickly answered 'yellow'. Immediately I was able to tell that she understood my question, knew her colors and was able to reply verbally. As I explore the sites with students we created a system for giving feedback- easy- thumbs up, so-so- rocking hand, and hard- thumbs down. I was able to note where the student needed to review and what they had already understood.

This is by far not a complete list of resources, or a program to fully teach English. It is a resource to use in your classroom and share with parents at home to support the learning efforts, offer choice, and create an opportunity for you to connect with your students.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Solar Eclipse Monday August 21, 2017

Getting ready to view the solar eclipse? Use the following multimedia text set to share a variety of information with your students. Share the shortened URL and encourage exploration of the topic in pairs or small groups. On the larger text set, there is a section for students to post their questions and thinking, please encourage appropriate posts since we are sharing this document district wide. There is a section on the text set for safety as well, with a good video about what looking at the sun can do to your eyes. Try the Eclipse Simulator to find out when the partial eclipse is visible in Pleasanton and to what degree. Also, on Monday, watch the live stream viewing of the Solar Eclipse as it crosses the US, by the Exploratorium.

For grades TK-2 bit.ly/k2sun

For grades 3-12 bit.ly/exploresun

If you want to create your own version of the text set, or attach a Padlet that will be used just by your students, just go to File>Make A Copy and it will now by your document to edit as you wish. Be sure to open the share settings though! Want to change the Padlet....

Open the original Padlet on the text set. In the top right corner you will see the following links. Sign in to your account and select Remake.

Next select the two check boxes as shown below in order to have the share settings open for kids to comment. Click submit. It will then take you to your Padlet. Copy the link in the URL Bar and attach it to your personal text set.