Resources

Learning Resources
Educational Approaches

CUE Rock Star Teacher Camps |  www.cuerockstar.org
Cue Rock Star Teacher Camps take place mostly in California during the summer. These are structured as three days of experiential learning and relationship building. Teachers participate in hands-on sessions, usually integrating technology, so that at the end of each of the two hour sessions for each day, they have a built proficiency on a concept, as well as a relationship with the teachers (the real rock stars) and the Rock Star Faculty member. This resource is 

EdTechTeam | https://www.edtechteam.com/
​EdTechTeam provides training focused on Google Apps for Education, as well as Future Ready Schools. The organization provides EdTechTeam Summits exploring uses of Google Apps for Education around the world.

Partnership for 21st Century Learning  |  www.p21.org/our-work/resources/for-educators
​The Partnership for 21st Century Learning provides research on the 4 Cs (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity) which are necessary ingredients for creating student-centered learning. This site has research-based resources on the 4 Cs, which is beneficial for teacher growth, parent communication, and student learning.

Project Based Learning  | Buck Institute for Education
The Buck Institute for Education provides research, resources, educational tools, and models for implementing Project Based Learning. In addition, this non-profit organization provides training through conferences, blog posts, published books, among other resources.
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Tools for Learning

Creative Commons   |  Search and use images using Creative Commons Search
Creative Commons is a method to share digital resources outside of the realm of copyright law. While the process is a bit complex to understand at first, Creative Commons provides a way for creators of media to share them and still get credit. The YouTube video below provides a good introduction to this resource. This tool provides a way for Grade 6 ELA students to search for and use digital images, music, and media legally, while giving credit to the original creators following their attribution requirements.

  Estimation 180 | Estimation 180
Students learn to estimate and determine how close their estimations are. The estimation challenges start out as quite easy and get more challenging over time. This would be useful to Esperanza as she made a variety of life choices based upon her own estimations. Students could use this tool to gain skills in estimation.

​FunBrain | http://www.funbrain.com/
FunBrain is an online website where students can play educational digital games. There are games for Language Arts that students can play to practice grammar, parts of speech and writing. 

Google Docs | https://docs.google.com
Google Docs is the Word equivalent in Google's Web 2.0 Basic Suite of tools. Grade 6 ELA Students can use Slides to have a secure threaded discussion using the Quote Sticker created in Google Drawings. This gives students practice discussing quotes as a small group, 

Google Drawings  |  https://docs.google.com/drawings
Google Drawings can be used to by both teachers and students to create visual tools. Students can show skills and ideas they have mastered. Teachers can create attractive badges or images for educational use. Students in one of my sixth grade ELA lessons used these to create "Quote Stickers" after selecting an important quote from a text they were reading.

Google Hangouts | https://hangouts.google.com
Google Hangouts is a tool for communicating with others (like Skype), but within the Google platform. It can be used by Grade 6 ELA classes to bring in experts digitally, have mystery hangouts with classes studying the same book (Esperanza Rising) in other geographic locations, or do book talks with another class reading the same (or similar) book.

Google Slides | https://slides.google.com
Google Slides is the PowerPoint equivalent in Google's Web 2.0 Basic Suite of tools. Grade 6 ELA Students can use Slides to present findings or gather resources in a portfolio to demonstrate their learning. They can provide information about themes, symbolism, and the plot of the book, Esperanza Rising.

Google Sheets  | https://sheets.google.com
Google Sheets is Google's Web 2.0 tool akin to Microsoft's Excel. However, Sheets exceeds Excel in its use as a web accessible and sharable document, ideal for student and teacher collaboration.  It is used crowdsource quotes in Esperanza Rising, to support analysis the novel. Students find and share important quotes or evidence in the novel and provide analysis of the quote.

​HSTRY | https://edu.hstry.co/login
HSTRY is a timeline creation tool which a teacher can set up for free for a class. Grade 6 ELA Students can collaborate on creating timelines within a class and publish them publicly. Students can track the history of the time and conditions, and history of the time the book, Esperanza Rising, was written.

IntelliKeys | IntelliKeys
According to its website, "IntelliKeys meets the needs of students who face challenges ranging from learning disabilities to significant physical disabilities. The keyboard is flexible enough to meet a variety of access and learning needs. Unlike a keyboard normally attached to a computer, IntelliKeys look and functionality is changeable by sliding in different overlays" (IntelliKeys). IntelliKeys provides access to a computer and allows a student with physical disabilities to interact with literature, such as Grade 6 CCSS ELA.

ListenCurrent | www.listencurrent.com
ListenCurrent houses a collection of recordings curated by NPR radio. In addition to the recordings, there are quizzes to support student listening comprehension, which provide data to teachers about listening capabilities. Grade 6 ELA students can listen to stories with themes that relate to the books they are reading to provide insights into characters and settings of books they read.

MinecraftEDU | www.minecraftedu.com
MinecraftEDU is specifically designed to integrate with schools, with lesson plans and ideas to allow students to construct worlds and deepen their understanding. It can be used to construct elements from a book, such as Esperanza Rising, so that students can make the world of words turn into a digital world they create.

MyMaps Google |  Digital Map/Posting Tool
MyMaps is a Google tool for dropping pins on maps. Students can then add media (images or YouTube videos), commentary, and other information on the information document connected to the MyMap pin. Grade 6 ELA students could track the path characters in a book traveled, such as Esperanza's journey from Mexico to the United States, by adding pins and quotes from that portion of the story.

Newsela | www.newsela.com
Newsela publishes short informational text readings that can be adjusted for lexile level. Further, each reading has a quiz connected to it. Newsela can be assigned through Google Classroom. Grade 6 ELA Teachers can use stories with themes that align with stories they are reading to support deeper understanding.

Padlet |  Digital Bulletin Board www.padlet.com
Padlet is a digital board that can be used for for professional development for teachers or with students. The teacher creates an account, then creates a digital bulletin board that only requires web access via a link. Links can be emailed or posted in Google Classroom. Students can post using the link without signing in, which makes it easy to use. This tool can be used for brainstorming, formative assessment, collaboration, or an exit ticket in Grade 6 ELA classrooms.

Piktochart | http://piktochart.com/
​​Piktochart is an easy-to-use Infographic creator which allows students to sign-in using their Google Accounts. Further, students are able to publish their Piktocharts, embed them, download them, and link them. Grade 6 ELA students can demonstrate their understanding of books by creating graphic representations of them.

SuperNova | SuperNova Screen Reader
SuperNova Screen reader provides students who are blind access to information on a computer screen. While this is an expensive tool, it certainly could give those without sight or with limited sight access to computer-based information. This tool would support student access to reading, listening and writing, accessing the Grade 6 ELA curriculum.
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Would You Rather |  Would You Rather
Explore choices which require mathematical evaluation, comparing two different items to determine which is a better value. This website would have been beneficial to Esperanza when she went to the store to purchase groceries.

Screencasting Tools

Camtasia   |  www.camtasia.com
Camtasia is a robust screencapture software created by TechSmith. It can be downloaded on the web directly from www.techsmith.com. There is discounted education pricing at  $75 for Mac and $179 for PC currently. Pricing varies and this program is sometimes on sale. This program is very valuable for a teacher creating educational or instructional videos, for example in a Grade 6 ELA class. It is fairly easy to learn. The company provides many video tutorials, explaining features and providing demonstrations. 
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Screencastify   |  www.screencastify.com 
Screencastify is a free Chrome Extension which you can add to your Chrome Browser in the Chrome Webstore. Screencastify allows individuals to create screencasts, with or without your recorded image. These can be saved in Google Drive or published as YouTube videos. Students can use Chromebooks to create Screencasts to demonstrate mastery of topics. Teachers create screencasts for flipped learning or student review of information. Screencastify has both free and paid version. The free version limits recordings to 10 minutes and has a watermark. Students can create screencasts to explain elements of the book, Esperanza Rising, such as the themes, plot, or symbolism.

​Snagit   | www.snagit.com
Snagit is a screencapture program created by TechSmith. There is a Snagit Google Chrome Extension, and also a paid tool. The paid tool allows individuals to capture, annotate, and enhance screen or imported images. It is a great tool for enhancing Social Media posts and creating attractive images for presentations and communication pieces. Grade 6 ELA students could use Snagit to create images and GIFs to demonstrate understanding of literature.

YouTube | www.youtube.com
​YouTube channel holders upload 300 hours of content per hour. While much of this content does not apply to  education, there are significant resources available to use for education. See this link to a presentation on my website at CUE 2016, YouTubular, for more information. Students can access YouTube videos to build understanding of grammar, writing, and other related ELA topics.

Professional Learning Networks
Building a Digital Network

Searching for  Your Hashtag Tribe |  #findyourtribe
Educators have taken to twitter for professional development, discussions, and relationships. There are regular chats taking place every hour of the day, day of the week, and educational topic you can imagine. Here is a link to a calendar of chat hashtags, times, and topics. Cybraryman provides instructions on how to participate in a chat at this link. 

Joining the Twitterverse |  Need a Twittervention?
Cybraryman provides instructions on how to participate in a chat at this link. For up-to-date information about Twitter Chats, how to join one, and what to do, go to Alice Keeler's blog and search  for Twitter. She posts regularly on how to participate in Twitter. Twitter has been the best source of ongoing professional development for me this year.

Voxer  |  www.voxer.com
Voxer is a digital Walkie-Talkie that allows for synchronous and asynchronous communications. It has both free and paid versions. The benefit of the Pro version is that it allows for adding more people to groups. It is useful for a PLC or PLN group that is planning together, but wants to leave comments or other information.

CC BY SA lucky_sun

Reports and Research
White Papers, Reports, Studies

2016 National Edtech Plan  |  Link to Edtech Plan
This recently published plan provides guidance and recommendations for use of technology in education. The report is separated in sections, with the Teaching section being a wonderful place to start for teachers looking for ways to learn, as well as innovative models from other teacher-leaders.

Center on International Education Benchmarking |  Website link
The Center on International Education Benchmarking provided two reports recently on top performing educational districts and countries, to provide light on how the achievement levels were reached. The two publications, Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems and Developing Shanghai's Teachers are available at this site.
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