Here is a math activity that asks students to find the area of rectangle and then use that information to figure out other relevant real life questions related to the area. This activity is great for practicing these skills and for teaching the value of this knowledge. This activity is in a Google Form that requires students to reach the correct answer before they can proceed to the next question.
Here is a drag and drop Google Slides activity for your students that asks them to demonstrate their knowledge of the water cycle. This activity has two parts. The first has students order the steps of the water cycle on a graphic organizer. The second part of the activity asks students to use that knowledge to create a visual representation of the water cycle by dragging and dropping the provided images. All of the background images with directions and the manipulatives were created in Canva and imported to Google slides. Below are some examples of how student work could look but there are numerous correct answers for each part. The order of water cycle steps should be consistent in that order but could start at any step.
| Free Verse | Poems that have no rules or patterns |
| Dialogue | spoken words- uses quotation marks ” ” Ex: “Hello,” I said. |
| Main Message | What the author wants you to learn from the story. |
| Imagery | When the author uses descriptive language to get the reader to picture it in their mind- includes senses |
| Appeals | Shows For example: This appeals (or shows) the reader’s sense of smell/taste/sight/sound/touch |
| Synonym | Meaning the SAME thing |
| The most likely reason | Best reason |
| Plot | The events, or what happens, in the story |
| Summary | Stating the main events that happened in the story. Characters, Problem, Resolution (CPR) for fiction. |
| Theme | The message (Theme and main message are synonyms) |
| Poem | Descriptive writing that follows a rhythm, could rhyme. |
| Poet | A person who composes, or writes, poems. Ex: The poet, Shel Silverstein, wrote many poems. |
| Line | Each row of text is a line |
| Stanza | A group of lines in a poem ‘Poetry’s little paragraphs’ |
| Five Senses | See, smell, taste, hear, touch |
| Support | Details in the text that help you find the answer |
| Paragraph | A section of the story. These are numbered. |
| Resolution | How the problem/conflict was solved |
| Description | Used to describe something Ex: The ice cream sundae was smothered in hot fudge, fluffy whip cream and creamy caramel. The description of the ice cream made me so hungry! |
| Infer/Inference | To use background knowledge plus text evidence to come up with an answer |
| Section | A part of the story/selection |
| Evidence | Proof in the text to support your answer Ex: In paragraph 7, Marie said , “I don’t like spaghetti.” Therefore, I know she didn’t pick that to eat for dinner. |
| Author | The person who wrote the story/selection |
| Illustration | A hand drawn picture |
| Selection | The WHOLE story |
| Photograph | A real picture (NOT hand drawn) |
| Most likely reason | The best reason (what makes the most sense?) |
| Opinion | NOT a fact Ex: Blue is the best color. |
| Central idea | what the story or section is MOSTLY about |
| Predict | using clues to decide what you think will happen |
| Audience | Who the author is talking to Ex: Students, teachers, children, adults, etc. |
| Addressing | Talking to Ex: The teacher was addressing the class when she spoke about behavior. |
| Prefix | Comes BEFORE the root word Ex: REuse (‘re’ is the prefix) |
| Suffix | Come AFTER the root word Ex: thankFUL (‘ful’ is the suffix) |
| Conclude | To come to a conclusion-similar to an inference |
| Imagery | Using your senses |
| Subheading | A section of the story that is bolded that tells you what a SECTION of the story will be about. |
| Contribute | share |
| The most likely reason | The best reason |
| Paragraph | A section of the story. These are numbered. |
| Theme | The message (theme and main message are synonyms) What is the author trying to teach you? |
| Infer/Inference | To use background knowledge (what you already know) plus text evidence to come up with an answer |
| resolution | How the problem/conflict was solved |
| Resolved | solved |
| Suggest | Show |
| Selection | The WHOLE story |
| Section | A PART of the story/selection |
| Main message | What the author is trying to teach you Ex: Treat others with kindness. |
| Illustration | Hand drawn picture |
| Suffix | Comes after the root word Ex: thankFUL (‘ful’ is the suffix) |
| Poet | The person who wrote the poem |
| Summary | Stating the main events that happened in the story. Characters, Problem, resolution (CPR) for fiction. |
| Differ | Different |
| Similarity | How are they similar, or the same? |
| Photograph | A real picture (NOT hand drawn) |
| Conclude | To come to a conclusion-similar to an inference |
| Stage direction | Tells the character what to do- This will be in parentheses. Ex: (smiling) Hey! How are you? |
| definition | What a word means |
| Dictionary Entry | A vocabulary question that will give four definition choices to choose from |
| Line | The lines spoken by characters in a drama |
| Anecdote | A short story |
| First-person | Uses first-person pronouns (I, me, we) |
| Subheading | A section of the story that is bolded that tells you what a SECTION of the story will be about. |
| Central idea | What the story of section is MOSTLY about |
| Claim | Your main argument |
| Problem and Solution organizational text structure | The way the story is organized. Ex: The problem may be that there is pollution, so the story would then tell solutions to the problem. |
| Dictionary Entry | A vocabulary question that will give four definition choices to choose from |
| Definition | What a word means |
| Sub-heading | A section of the story that is bolded that tells you what a SECTION of the story will be about |
| Summary | Stating the main events that happened in the story. characters, Problem, resolution (CPR) for fiction. |
| Suffix | Comes after the root word Ex: thankFUL (‘ful’ is the suffix) |
| Playwright | The person who wrote the play |
| Simile | A type of figurative language that compares two things USING ‘like’ or ‘as’ Ex: She was as sweet as pie. |
| Conflict | problem |
| resolution | How the problem was solved |
| Author | The person that wrote the story |
| Selection | The WHOLE story |
| Section | A PART of the story/selection |
| Plot | the series of events that happen in the story |
| Theme | main message in the story- What the author is trying to teach you. Ex: Always be honest and kind. |
| Infer/Inference | To use background knowledge (what you already know) plus text evidence to come up with an answer |
| Similar | alike |
| Differ | different |
| Claim | Your main argument |
| Paragraph | A section of the story. These are numbered. |
| Stage directions | Tells the character what to do or how to act- This will be in parentheses. Ex: (smiling) Hey! How are you? |
| Conclude | To come to a conclusion-similar to an inference |
| Cause and effect organizational text structure | The way the story is organized. Ex: Because it snowed, we didn’t have school. |
| Compare and contrast organizational text structure | The way the story is organized. Ex: Sarah is very outgoing and talks all the time, but Sally is very quiet and shy. |
| Photograph | A real picture (NOT hand drawn) |
| Central Idea | What the story of section is MOSTLY about |
I have been seeing more and more online lately about AI image generators but I have been hesitant to delve into it. Some of the stuff is so strange and unnatural looking that it can be down right creepy. Then there is the whole possibility of Skynet that makes me irrationally not too excited about it.
However I learned today that Canva.com now has an AI image generator so I decided to go down that rabbit hole. It was fascinating. But before I get into it let’s talk about how we can use it in class. It’s fun but we need some value from it, more than a cool factor.
Add AI Images to your project by clicking the Apps button on the left side tool bar
Then pick Text to Images from the Create Something New category
I had two ideas this morning and I would love to hear back from you of other ways you come up with to use this new technology.
My first idea was a tool to make beautifying artwork for your teacher created materials. One of the options is for the AI to create an image pattern based on your request. These pattern images could make cool backgrounds. I asked the AI to make a pattern of Google App Logos and got these results. I also asked it to make a pattern image of zoo animals and got the results below. Now this is fun and useful but to truly get the most out of this tool we need to engage students using it so keep scrolling for my next idea.
Notice the unique “zoo animals” that it seems to have fabricated
Math teachers, you could have your students use probability to predict and analyze the patterns they create. Perhaps there is a way to incorporate your TEKS on 3D images with the 3D AI generated images.
My other idea was to have students generate images that can inspire a writing assignment. Students can enter attributes of a character or scene and have the AI generate an image. The images are likely to be wild (but appropriate, there looks to be strong filtering on the search key words) and stretch beyond the students expectations. When I tested this idea I got really neat images back that made my basic preconceived story concepts expand instantly in my imagination.
Let’s take a look at some of the examples below.
I did find out that Canva does limit you to 100 AI generated images per day.
Here is a secondary ECR writing prompt. I have built it into Eduphoria Aware as well. I can share it to you if you are PISD send me an email. I have also shared it with your ELAR instructional coaches so you can get it from them as well.
Here is an activity to help your students practice reading a story and answering comprehension questions online. This activity includes multiple item types in Teachermade, a supporting YouTube video about falcons, and a printable closing activity.
If you are a PISD teacher I even have a falcon statue you can borrow as a hook. This activity can be as simple as the Teachermade activity only. Additionally you could add in the other Falcon activities to support interesting science knowledge as well.
This is a Lumio SMART board activity which has 5 different types of activities with 23 activity slides in total. Follow then link and save the activity to your Lumio library.
Here are a pair of printable posters for your classroom that inform and remind your students of keyboarding need to knows. Below are links to download poster sized pdfs of each.
Here is an activity that I built in Google Forms. You can assign this to your students in Google Classroom.
In this activity students examine an infographic, primary source audio recordings, and a couple of YouTube videos, all with reflection questions and some basic math computation for that cross curricular kick. I have added a line to the form to collect “Teacher Last Name” If you would like to have access to your students submissions you may email me and I can add you to the results spread sheet. It is however not a self grading activity. It contains a lot of open ended and short answer questions as opposed to multiple choice.
I love Digital Interactive Notebooks and would be happy to help you get one set up for your students. They are a great way to use your Chromebooks and have students develop digital skills while curating all the resources they need for your course.
Above is a link to a TCEA article on these cool learning tools. Below is my post on Digital Interactive Notebooks. I created several content specific examples that are worth exploring. Those examples are found on slide 7.
Perhaps, like myself and others you have recently been frustrated by the phonebook system on our new school telephones. One day while expressing my frustrations to the phone, Mrs. Pappas informed me that there was an online phone directory that was far faster and easier to use. “Where might this super secret principals only phone directory be located”, I asked? “It’s no secret, it’s in ClassLink”, She replied.
Please enjoy this dramatic reenactment of a similar story.
(No employees were harmed during the filming of this video)
I have previously created a guide for changing your Gmail signature which you can review here. Let’s go a step further and examine how to use Canva to create a custom email signature graphic which you can upload through the settings detailed in the link above.
Why would you want to create a custom Gmail signature? To communicate standard information to your recipients that you might not have included in the body of your email. You can also provide other contact and information options that parents and colleagues could use such as your phone extension, Campus, Grade level taught, Important roles you fulfill that someone might need to know.
Canva (which you can get a free premium teacher account for) offers 1,300 templates for a custom email signature. You can also search for business card templates which will work equally as well. There are over 11,000 of those templates available.
Choose a template and then have fun customizing it to include your contact information and more. When you complete your sweet new email signature you can download it as a PNG image to upload in Gmail.
Check out this video walk through below for a more detailed tutoring.
Here is a super simple but hugely effective Chromebook Quick Tip for you.
When you need to address your students while they are working on their Chromebook you need to peel their attention off of the device and on to you. Instruct your students to “45 their Chromebook”. This indicates that they need to close the screen to a 45 degree angle. This way they can’t see and be distracted by the screen but it does not close and put it to sleep.
Watch this short video to learn about the Mayfield Elementary Galaxy Star Challenge
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u_G4bCtU5tb-ER738tAP1dHPajh0cIpgKa_jYqkF4qg/edit?usp=sharing
This slide show is to teach the campus administrators how to download the contest data.
Watch this super quick video to learn how you can win $200!!!
ETu Podcast Episode 11 23 September 2022
Innovation Badges
My Classes in ClassLink
https://help.classlink.com/s/article/My-Classes
Progress Learning with Alek Turner
Add Subjects for differentiation to Study Plans -see step 6. (this goes over all class settings available)
Here is a brief walk through how to find a shared assessment in Progress Learning.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PIJw7-knWpfr4LrwXTNh-0DVyPJFXX1A/view?usp=sharing
Here are 3 custom created just for you printable No-Tech Board Game options for your students. They are designed to be played with Flash Cards that you provide or even better have students make. I made with technology so I count them that way as EdTech. Made in Canva.
It is really so easy you would be silly not to try it. It takes about 1 minute to do.
In a later video we will cover creating custom assessments, how to share assessments with your team, and how to assign assessments.
Have your students add a moving mouth and voice to an image of a person or even any object with a tool like Blabberize or Chatterpix. Students can create a fun project like that to demonstrate what they have learned.
Check out this brief example of Mr. TP doin his standup routine.
This example is supposed to be fun and engaging but imagine it is Sojourner Truth talking about her work toward the abolition of slavery. Jack London explaining his short story “To Build A Fire”. One of the Engineers who designed the Golden Gate Bridge teaching how it’s suspension span system works. Or even Ada Lovelace sharing how she saw the future of basic machine computation growing into algorithms. Please invite me to your class to help your students develop some awesome projects like these.
This is badge #96 Talking Pics for our Innovation Badge Chart.
