February U5 Instructional Technology Tips

Well February has been quite nice.  The sun finally decided to show itself and when the sun is shining regardless of how cold it is, my mood changes for the better.  I am looking forward to longer days and more sunshine and maybe even thinking about spring break.   

February is Black History Month and each week I will be linking out many resources for you to take a look at and see if and how they could be integrated into your curriculum. 

In this issue of the 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! 

PBS Learning Media Resources for K-12

Did you know that PBS LearningMedia has digital learning media that is great for in person and remote learning?  It also has Teacher Planning kits for PreK-12 for New School Routines.  You can Download these for free!

PBS LearningMedia has a plethora of great resources available for use. Sign in with your Google Account and filter by Subject, Grade, and Standards. Once it takes you to the topic, you can dig deeper into the discipline and the type of activity you want; such as Video, Interactive, Lesson Plan, Media Gallery, Audio and Images.   Pick the lesson you are interested in and read the About, Supporting Materials and Standards sections.  

Under Support Materials you will see multiple docs you can use, select the Supporting Materials Teaching Tips.  This doc has many resources and helpful hints on teaching the lesson. Students will use the interactive material to take notes, highlight, organize, write and highlight and comment.  The BEST part about these, is they are FREE!

Take a look at the videos on how to get started: Part 1

The Launch: Part 2

Getting started through Google Classroom, and Submitting the work in Google Classroom. Part 3.  Remember all work generated throughout the lesson is saved in MyWork and can be printed as a PDF and uploaded to Google classroom.  Take a look at the video below to learn more. 

Here are a couple to try:

• Rounding to the Tenths Place - Elementary
• Why Summer Days Have More Daylight - Middle School 
• DNA and the Science of Genetic Engineering - COLLECTION - Middle/High