The nuts and bolts to getting set up in Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a great way to manage your digital classroom. Students can enroll themselves and it's easy to assign work, e-mail classes and collect digital projects. Google Classroom now integrates with Google Calendar by creating class calendars with all assignments and questions. The Question feature also easily allows for digital class discussions. The calendar can be posted on a teacher webpage that parents can access and should dynamically update all posts.

Only students can enroll in a class and they must use the school provided Google Account!

A Google Classroom App is also available on Android and IOS. It provides the same functionality as the web version and will also notify students to updates to their classes.

How to get started...

For more information, check out these amazing resources from Alice Keeler

Hour Of Code Dec 7 - Dec 13

It's The Hour of Code!

December 7-13 2015

This global movement is designed to draw awareness to computer science by encouraging everyone to spend 1 hr next week learning about computer coding. 

Anyone Can Code

During the Hour of Code week share this link

bit.ly/pusdhoc 

with students and let them explore the many self-guided coding resources. Sites vary in difficulty from TK-12th grade. 

No device or internet? Click HERE to try 'unplugged' computer science- great for helping students of all ages concepts related to coding. 

Visit Code.org for more information and resources

Google Expeditions

In October, Google Expeditions came to Lydiksen, Vintage Hills, Harvest Park, Hart, and Pleasanton Middle School. It provided an opportunity for students to take a virtual field trip to the Great Barrier Reef, Roman Colosseum, Colonial Philadelphia and many other exotic locations around the world. Students were provided an Android smartphone and fold up piece of cardboard for their expeditions which were controlled by the teachers tablet. Google Expeditions is currently being beta tested, but hopefully will be available later this year. In the meantime, many of the 360 photos and videos are available online. Find out more about Expeditions here.

Pleasanton Weekly's Article

Listen Current - ELA Claim 3 Listening and Speaking

Listening Comprehension like any other skill needs to be taught and practiced to improve student performance. Listen Current is a great resource to help teachers find relevant podcasts that align to their contents. Free accounts allow teachers to search by topic, provide a link to a podcast along with several comprehension questions. There are more features available for a fee, but the free version provides the important resources that teachers need.