My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. I didn't let myself or anyone down. One post per day for 30 days! (April Challenge Update Calendar Doc)
My exploration has all about new resources and ideas, so I thought I would finish up the month with some resources connected to curiosity.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
"Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” —Scott Adams
Today I am exploring kindness and resources for schools and families to engage learners. I believe kindness is one of the most important skills we can help develop.
I am always updating this playlist, so please let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments below.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
I am exploring the TeachBetter Podcast Network.
The Teach Better Podcast Network is dedicated to supporting the entire school ecosystem through in-depth conversations around topics you care about. Covering a variety of areas in education, each podcast aims to support educators in the field toward creating and maintaining a progressive, student-focused classroom.
This is an amazing collection of podcasts. Today I wanted to share some of the amazing websites for teachers shared by Eric and Nick in Episode 136 of the GotTechED Podcast.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I want to catch up on some Edutopia posts. Edutopia has long been one of my favorite resources to explore and reflect on teaching and learning.
Spring is a great time to learn & explore something new!
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I am taking a deep dive into the resources on Common Sense Education. There is a lot to unpack and explore!
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Thanks to a Tweet by Tony Vincent, I discovered Auto Classmate. Tony shared the "Activation and Engagement Activity Generator". Which is pretty amazing. I also discovered two additional AI Tools for teachers on the site. Today I am exploring all three tools.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Over the weekend I set aside some time to reflect on my IDEAcon notes. I spent the most time exploring some of the ideas and resources shared by Jordyn Zimmerman. Learning about Jordyn and her journey was a highlight of the conference.
As a nonspeaking autistic person who was denied access to effective augmentative communication until she was 18, Jordyn Zimmerman has personal experience challenging the educational status quo, which is featured in the 2021 documentary, This Is Not About Me.
This morning I opened my email and one of the first messages was from my friends at We Are Teachers. I subscribe to the "Daily Update - Secondary Edition" and the feature today was "Autism Acceptance (not Awareness) Month". It seems like the world is trying to tell me something, it's time to explore autism and resources to support neurodivergent learners.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I signed up for a free course on the Ditch That Textbook, "Creating a Playful Classroom with Jed Dearybury!"
I am currently reading The Playful Life: The Power of Play in Our Every Day by Julie Jones and Jed Dearybury, so I am excited to shift my focus to learning more about "The Playful Classroom: The Power of Play for All Ages".
Signing up for this course started me thinking about additional learning opportunities. Today, I wanted to share some online PD courses for educators that are worth exploring this Spring and Summer.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Animated GIFs, love them or hate them, are part of our online experiences, communication, and many learning experiences. They can also be great tools for creative thinking and design.
I like GIFs when they are used in moderation so today I am exploring Tenor. Tenor is an online GIF storehouse and more. Tenor is owned by Google but continues to exist as a stand-alone product.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I am taking a deeper dive into Focusable. I've been connected with Focusable on social media and met some of the Focusable staff at various conferences, like IDEAcon. Still, I have not spent enough time exploring the resource for myself and my students. That changes today!
“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” ― Roy T. Bennett
30 Day Challenge - April 20th
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
I was reflecting on the challenge of creating a new post each day this morning before starting a new exploration and post. I've started and deleted more posts this month than I've published. For a variety of reasons, some of my explorations have not made the cut. This is part of my learning experience.
I also recognize that most of my posts over the past 20 days have focused on EdTech resources teachers can use in the classroom. Exploring EdTech is in my wheelhouse, so that is where I find myself most mornings. I've always been passionate about finding new ways to engage students with educational technology, but it is still a real challenge to find something new each day that I think is worth sharing.
Today I wanted to shift and expand my focus away from EdTech for a bit. The 4 C's have always been the foundation of my teaching philosophy. I believe my content should help students engage in creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. I also believe that I have a responsibility to help my students grow as humans. This means I sometimes need to expand my mindset beyond my content, EdTech, and the 4 Cs.
Long introduction, I know! I'm almost there. (TLDR?)
Today, I decided to explore what it means to be a good human. What human characteristics can we cultivate that make school and the world a better place for all? I started with Google Search. My keywords included empathy, kindness, character, purpose, and optimism. I discovered and explored quite a few posts and great resources and decided to share The Positivity Project today. I know I sometimes need a little more positivity in my life.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I am exploring another generative AI resource, which is part of Formative. Formative is an interactive student assessment tool. If you are new to Formative, Common Sense Media has a nice summary and review here.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller
While artificial intelligence is not new, it's recently jumped to the front of many educators' minds. It likes wildfire. I don't remember the last time if ever that there was so much to explore in so short of a time.
The future is uncertain and it's probably going to be a bumpy ride at times, but I believe that AI will become a valuable tool in my teaching and learning toolbox. I am writing this post to share my explorations connected to AI. My plan is to continue to add resources and ideas as I continue to learn. I am going to focus on sharing the positive because I don't think we can hide from AI.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
I am exploring Google Arts and Culture and the Arts & Culture Keyword Blog. The Arts and Culture site is not new to me, but every time I open the page I discover something new and amazing. If I ever do another 30 Day Blogging Challenge it might be exploring something new on the Arts and Culture Site each day. Today I am going to share 5 new discoveries and I will also share some additional resources to help everyone to explore the amazing Google Arts and Culture Site.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
I've used Pear Deck for quite a few years, but I've primarily used or created my own slide decks. Today I am exploring the Pear Deck Content Orchard and some of the ready-to-use lessons supported by some amazing partners including, NASA, Boston Museum of Science, Adobe, Newsela, Canva, PBS Newshour Classroom, and more.
Today I wanted to share some resources my PLN has shared to engage students in explorations connected to Planet Earth and the Environment.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
I am always looking for new ways to engage students in thinking critically about graphics. Today I am exploring two resources connected to exploring graphs, "Slow Reveal Graphs" and "Data is Beautiful".
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Too often, I attend a conference come home with some great ideas in my notes and then never come back to them in the rush of teaching and learning. That changes today! I am reviewing my IDEAcon 2023 notes and I was reminded that I need to take some time to explore the amazing ideas & resources from the conference.
Today. I am going to explore and highlight the amazing Doodle and Chat YouTube Channel. I attended a session and also participated in a Doodle Chat with Carrie Baughcum & Mandi Tolen. I am also going to take some time to review the rest of my IDEAcon notes. I will add a few additional highlights from my notes at the end of this post.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I am exploring the New York Times Learning Network. I've used "What's Going on in This Picture?" and "What's Going on in This Graph?" with my students for several years. I've not made the time to explore the rest of The Learning Network resources. That changes today! Today I am going to share a summary of the free resources for teachers on The Learning Network.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today am exploring some of the recent posts by @rmbyrne. Richard Byrne is one of the OG's in the world of EdTech. He was one of the first educators I followed when I joined Twitter. His blog "Free Technology for Teachers" was one of the first blogs I followed regularly. Richard still produces amazing resources and collections today.
Today I was drawn into a post about another new AI tool, gotFeedback. gotFeedback's goal is to help teachers provide more individualized feedback to students.
April is National Poetry Month, 30 days of celebrating the joy, expressiveness, and pure delight of poetry.
Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and, of course, poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives. In 2021, the Academy of American Poets looks forward to celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of this annual celebration! (Source)
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Today I am exploring the Control Alt Achieve EdTech Links of the Week document and I discovered a new AI resource I will use with my students this week, QuestionWell.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)
Last week one of our LMC Directors (Carrie Ory) asked me about some of Google's Fact Check Tools and Google Search's "about this result feature". Today I wanted to share my exploration and some additional digital literacy and fact-checking resources.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)If you are a regular Google Drive user, you have probably noticed some of Google Material Design Updates. Today, I want to explore and share some of the updates and features.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Updates)
Since it is Easter, I decided to hop over to Google Search and explore some "Easter Eggs".
When browsing the internet, an Easter egg is a message, image, or joke hidden inside of a website. In order to activate the Easter egg, you may have to click a certain graphic or key in a code. (Source)
I like to use some of the Google Search Easter Eggs as brain breaks with my students. Something fun to explore when we need a break. Today I wanted to share a few that I've discovered recently along with a document exploring some of my favorites.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today I wanted to share an incredible resource that I've used a few times. TinyWow offers a variety of free tools for pdfs, images, videos, writing, and much more. I would compare TinyWow to a Swiss Army Knife. If you need to do something with a digital file, there's a good chance that TinyWow has the tool for you.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today I am exploring Smithsonian's Learning Lab. The lab is designed to help educators bring Smithsonian's incredible digital resources to classrooms.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today I am exploring the Learning Technology Center Website and the collection of Educational Badges and Certificates on the site. I explored many of these certifications in the past, but I am quickly learning that I need to up my game.
A 3-2-1 Bridge Activity is a great way for students to explore what they know and what they learn before and after a class activity. The idea is to engage students in first exploring what they think they know and then reflecting on how what they know changed after the activity.
3-2-1 Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage?
This routine helps students understand their own process of learning by considering their conceptions of a topic before and after a learning experience and how their conceptions changed. (Source)
Here is a sample I've created a quick 3-2-1 Bridge Activity - Sustainable Energy for my students to initially activate their knowledge about energy. They complete the first column before we watch four short videos connected to Sustainable Energy. After the videos and a class discussion, we complete the second column and the "Making Connections".
Sometimes, I also have students reflect on the connections between their before and after ideas using a Flip response.
If you are interested in trying this, here is a free Google Docs template I've created that you can copy and modify.
Refresh and renew. Spring is a great time to learn & explore something new!
April 5th, 2023
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Did you know that March is National Creativity Month? If you've followed me over the years you might also know that creativity is one of the essential skills we practice in my classrooms. Today I was exploring the Adobe Express Twitter feed and I discovered some awesome Adobe Creative Education Challenges for teachers and students.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today, I am exploring IDEA's Big Ideas Weekly Newsletters. There are always some amazing stories and resources shared each week. Today I am exploring "Digital Cleanup Day". I didn't even know this was an "official day"? I must not have read the March 16th newsletter very closely.
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share something I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today, I am exploring the Ditch That Textbook Twitter feed, and I discovered an amazing video resource, TEACHERFLIX for classrooms. (Check out my Twitter Likes, to see some other amazing resources and posts I am exploring from the Ditch That Textbook Blog.)
Refresh and renew. Spring is the time to learn something new!
April 2nd, 2023
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
Each day I will explore new teaching and learning resources and share one of my topic takeaways for the day. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down!
Today, I wanted to share something I discovered from Karly Moura while exploring my Twitter stream. The topic today is using digital escape rooms to engage students in content as they collaborate and practice problem-solving skills.
Refresh and renew. Spring is the time to learn something new!
April 1st, 2023
If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.
I've spent some time during our Spring Break reflecting on the school year and thinking about what's next and this led to a new challenge. I am feeling inspired to plan and create 30 new posts in 30 days during the month of April. Each day I will explore new teaching and learning resources and share what I discover each day. Hopefully, I won't let myself down!
Today is April 1st, so I guess it is time to get started. Today, I wanted to share a fun drawing tool I discovered on the Control Alt Achieve Blog.
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