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Travel The World From Inside the Classroom

Middle School students using VR

Want to take a field trip to Uruguay? What about a tour through the cells of plants and animals during your science class? Or we could go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and take a rocket to space?

Seem unlikely? It’s not.

Not when you have Virtual Reality.

District Librarian Lori Thomson earned a grant to purchase 10 VR headsets and the hardware to run the VR earlier this school year and they’re being checked out by teachers regularly. Teachers can use already-created resources from Google Expeditions to take students on a virtual field trip to over 900 places. Teachers and students can also create their own expeditions with Google Tour Creator. VR is a great way to introduce  a new idea or wrap up a unit of study because it fosters interest and exploration. It can be used to help promote empathy and understanding. In addition to the field trip aspect, it offers students a glimpse into a world beyond their own.

If you’re interested in checking out VR for your classroom, check the list of expeditions and reach out to Lori Thomson, Molly Klodor, or Dan Stitzel. There are 10 headsets, so we recommend having another activity for the other portion(s) of your class. If you need help or want some ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Defer students and VRHigh School Students using VR

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Fall Level 1 Google Cohort | 2018

Streetsboro City Schools just wrapped up it’s first Level 1 Google Certification cohort to great success!
20 teachers met weekly either before or after school to learn a new topic in preparation for the Level 1 Google Certification test. The course covered 15 topics and worked to help all teachers become more comfortable with the programs and tools.
Members of the cohort felt that the program worked for them and their practice. One teacher commented “I loved the training and look forward to more. I had been planning on doing it on my own but never seem to find the time. The training forced me to carve out time for it.”
Another teacher used the tools she learned in the cohort in her classroom right away and had great success. She said “I added a [Google] classroom last week and got all the students in the class added in and had them do some google forms. It was awesome!! I kept reminding myself that they are 6 years old so it would take some time and patience but by day 2 they were picking it up so quickly!! I hope everyone takes the level 1 test-it really boosted my confidence with google!”
The next Level 1 cohort is already full for the spring semester, but keep your eye out for the Fall 2019 cohort! And, as always, you can reach out to Dan or Molly for assistance in your classes!
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Empowering Our Students with the New Ohio Strategic Plan

via Ohio Department of Education, written by Jonathan Juravich.

Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education, Each Child, Our Future, specifically speaks to what teachers already know — that each and every student in our classrooms is important and valuable. Their individual success is our priority. It is our role as educators to be sure they are continually challenged, prepared and empowered. This is what encourages me about the new strategic plan — a plan that supports and highlights the excellent work already happening in countless classrooms throughout our state. Continue reading “Empowering Our Students with the New Ohio Strategic Plan”

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Read&Write Reads PDFs

Maybe you’ve been using Read&Write since last February. Maybe you’re just picking up steam with Read&Write this school year. But you might have noticed that some PDFs you scan in don’t read with Read&Write. That’s because the optical character recognition (OCR) isn’t just right. But it’s an easy fix! Follow the steps below to get the best results:

  1. When scanning in a document from the school copiers, click “Scan and Send”
  2. On the right-hand side, select “PDF (compact)”
  3. Select OCR (Text Searchable)
  4. Click OK
  5. Now scan the document and send to yourself!

Once you’ve received the email, add the document to your Drive and post it for your students to use! For best use, students should download the PDF Reader extension.

On the students’ end, they will open the PDF in a new window (screenshot below). Then they’ll select “Open With” at the top of the screen and select Read&Write with Google Chrome.

save image

I know that seems like a lot of steps, but once it’s habit I hope it’ll be very easy. Stay tuned here for more information about Read&Write as we plan for District PD on the topic!

Want more help on getting the best results reading a PDF? Check out the link here.

Want help with tech coaches Dan or Molly? Sign up for an appointment!

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Hanging Out with an Artist in 2nd Grade

2nd grade students chat with artist

When Amy Eibler,  2nd grade teacher at SES, wanted to teach her students about critical thinking, she turned to apples.

Mrs. Eibler’s students studied apples to attempt to look at them differently. Over the course of the first few weeks of school, her class studied different artists who create with different perspectives. Then she asked her students to draw an apple from the perspective of that artist. They drew Picasso apples, Monet apples, Matisse apples, and Kandinsky apples. Mrs. Eibler wanted to teach her class that there are a lot of unique ways to solve a problem, just like there are a lot of unique ways to look at an apple.

To cap off her study of apples and perspective, she asked her friend, artist Beck Seashols to video in her class to talk about art with her students. Mrs. Eibler and a technology coach used her document camera and Google Hangouts to meet with the artist, who lives in Virginia. The students met with the artist for about 30 minutes, where they were able to see some of her art and ask questions about being an artist.

Mrs. Eibler hopes to reference this lesson throughout the school year.  She hopes that students will remember the apples when they have to solve a complex math problem or interpret the meaning in a story. This lesson on critical thinking and problem solving was a great way to encourage students to reach out of their comfort zones and think abstractly.

2nd grade students chat with an artist

Do you want some help integrating technology in your classroom? Reach out to Dan Stitzel or Molly Klodor or sign up for us to come to you!

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How to Filter Emails from Google Classroom

Email overload from Google Classroom?

If you’re anything like us, you’re using Google Classroom for any and all student assignments, and likely, your inbox gets flooded with emails telling you that Susie turned in her essay, or Johnny answered a question.

But do you really need all those emails? The short answer is yes, but not in your inbox… So let’s clean them up, make a filter, and send the email notifications from Classroom to its own folder. So easy! Here’s how… Continue reading “How to Filter Emails from Google Classroom”

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Improving Communication with Guardian Summaries

google classroom setup flyer

The  year is underway and you’ve set up your Google Classroom. That’s great! Now it’s time to take it to the next level. While teachers and students have access to Google Classroom, parents do not. Give parents and guardians access to Google Classroom in a few quick steps!

  1. In Google Classroom, select the People tab
  2. Next to each student, add the guardian’s email address. You can find the addresses in TAC
  3. Click Invite

That’s it! Now parents can receive daily or weekly summaries of their student’s work in ALL of their classes! And if a guardian has more than one student, the guardian will receive one email with all of their information. Parents can see their student’s missing work, any upcoming assignments, and the announcements you make. It’s a great way to stay connected!

Check out this flyer you can share with parents to help them get started:

google classroom setup flyer