- Overview of the Unit 5 AI District Presentation
- Women in History resources.
- Podcast Corner
U5 Instructional Technology
Technology to help each student and teacher to achieve personal excellence
Mar 14, 2024
Quarterly U5 Instructional Technology Update
Mar 5, 2024
Unit 5 Instructional Tech Tuesday March 5th
- Stickity - This is a new ADD ON (Extensions) in Google Slide and Docs for TEACHERS. You will notice that I have used some of the March stickers this month and the arrow which highlights Spring Break week. Take a look, I bet you love them!
- When AI Art Meets Music - This article talks about how to use AI apps to expand creativity. Carl Hooker is amazing. I was fortunate enough to see him in person at a conference last year and he was good. This article expanded my thoughts on creativity and how it can be used in the classroom. This activity is a great opportunity for attention getters, as well as starting the conversation about AI picture generators. Need some help in getting started? Just let your tech coach know.
- Visual Book Lists - Each one of these lists gives book recommendations on books. You can use the template. (Canva to edit) or download the .png. (picture). The nice part about the Canva option is you can edit books you have in your own library, or request new ones be added. I know I saw a couple I had not seen before.
- Slido - This extension for Google Slides is great to use to grab real time survey results from your class. Use it all day to grab data from all your classes or create separate slido's to individualize class data.
- Quarterly Unit 5 Instructional Technology Updates: These updates starting in 2024 are going Quarterly. Take a look inside for:
- AI District presentation followup
- Women in History Month resources from platforms we are licensed on.
- Podcast segment with Cool Cat Teacher.
As always, I hope you get at least one thing out of these each week, which keeps you coming back for more.
Feb 26, 2024
U5 Instructional Technology Tips Feb 26th
It's the end of February already and at least where we are, the weather has been beautiful. Normally February is a month that drags on because it is usually rainy, or there are several inches of snow on the ground, but this year it has been great. I hope this doesn't mean we are in for a terrible March. Spring Break is 4 weeks away; so close, but so far away.
Take a look at the U5 Instructional Tech Tuesday for the last two weeks.
- Last week we had Institute Day on Tuesday February 20th and we presented a District AI presentation. It went really well and we got a lot of great feedback.
- If you have not tried Class Companion, take a look, it is SOPPA Approved.
- Practice Sets in Google Classroom, what a great way to get some great formative feedback on instruction. These can be created from PDF's as well. Take a look at the short video.
- Learning for Justice Website. This is being used in many of our classes, it has many different topics to explore.
- Teachflix is a great classroom video option. The videos are already categorized by elementary, middle and high school. You can browse by content area or by selecting the grade level. There are also premade activities for you to download for your students. Take a look, you may find something you can use right away.
- Most Likely Machine - AI Simulator - Teaches students about algorithms and how they can make mistakes.
- First Chapter Friday -This resource allows you to listen to the Author read their first chapter of their book. What a great way to provide many opportunities for books for students. You can even filter these by your level on the left sidebar, elementary, middle, high.
Feb 6, 2024
February U5 Instructional Technology Tips
- Vocab Game for a Cause, called Free Rice.
- AI Tool Goblin - Link to a blog post and video. This is one you can use without logging in. Check it out!
- 10 Black Scientists that Science Teachers should know about. PBS Resource
- Tax Season is coming up and do your students know how to do their taxes? This is a great resource which walks them through the process. Everfi is FREE for Teachers to use and yes it is SOPPA approved!
- How James Brown Invented Funk - I thought this was a fun article with a video.
- LASTLY Our own April Schermann was interviewed on the ROE17 Podcast. She talked about STEM and The Growth Mindset. Take a listen, it was only 15minutes long!
Hope you find something you can use this week. Enjoy that sunshine, it will be in the 50's the rest of the week!
Jan 23, 2024
New Year of U5 Instructional Tech Updates
The end of last year and the beginning of 2024 have been busy to say the least. January has already consisted of two E-Learning days and a snow day. I think we will be in person a total of 13 days the whole month! It is crazy how one month can be so chaotic.
In this issue of the January Tech update you will find our Institute Day recordings. Many are from our vendors, but Matt and I did a training on AI. There is also a great video about how AI could save education (not distroy). It is about 15 minutes, but worth the watch.
If you got a new phone or device over the holidays you are probably wondering how to connect it to our WIFI. Check out the how to sheet, which will allow you to connect. This is great for parts of the buildings where there is no outside signal. If you are wanting to send your self a digital copy of an assignment, or picture, check out the video that shows you how to do it from our Follow Me printer/copier.
This year Google is also celebrating 25 years. Check out the most search items in 2023 in their video. Also, with the E-Learning going on, we put together a couple of videos on how to generate and update your Google Meet link in Google Classroom. Last there has been an update to practice sets in Classroom. You can now use a Google Form to generate a practice set for students! What a great way to get formative feedback!
Nov 28, 2023
Instructional Technology Tuesday Tips
In this issue:
- Overview of Diffit - What it is and what it can do. Short Video
- Getting started With Diffit - Longer video, but a great starting off point. It will show you all the tools you can create and SHARE out via docs, forms and slides. The sheer number of templates available to export to is amazing.
- PD Slidedeck for Teachers - This is awesome because there are short video clips in the speaker notes to walk you through any of the examples you want to learn more about.
- Login to Diffit and Play - The only way to learn about these tools is to play with them. See how using them can reduce your workload.
Nov 15, 2023
U5 Instructional Technology Tuesday Tips
- MagicSchool.ai - Introduction as well as a video on seeing your Output.
- Goblin AI tool - Simplify Tasks
- The Sift - A great way to get current events into your classroom!
- Youtube's Interactive Questions - Learn how to enter them. (Hint: Watch the MagicSchool First!)
- Thanksgiving Activities
- Why am I Thankful Activity
- Code a Turkey Game
Nov 7, 2023
U5 Instructional Technology Tuesday Tech Tips
In this issue of the Instructional Technology Tuesday Tech Tips you will find:
- EdPuzzle's AI Teacher Assist
- Veterans Day Activities
- National STEM Day Activities
- AI Political Cartoon
- 7 Ways to use EdPuzzle Live Mode
Oct 31, 2023
U5 Tuesday Instructional Technology Tips
Happy Halloween! In this issue you will find some AI and Halloween activites.
- AI Literacy 6-12 Lessons - This reasource is from Common Sense Media and each lesson is about 20 minutes. Great for introducing students to AI.
- Halloween Escape Room
- 27 Scary good Halloween Riddles - Use as a bellringer as students are coming into class.
Oct 27, 2023
October U5 Instructional Technology Updates
Welcome to the October U5 Instructional Technology Updates. In this issue you will find:
- Is using ChatGPT for school cheating or a new form of learning? - Video from the Today Show.
- Some Matt Miller AI resources.
- I just attended a Webinar of his this past week on this subject and it was very good. Stay tuned for a recap of what was learned.
- The Most Likely Machine - an AI Algorithm Game
- YouTube Summary Extension
- Infinite Campus update - U5 only
- Book Creator - Video on taking pages from your teacher template and copying them to all your students.