On the DL
Notes from Digital Learning and School Library Services
January 2022
Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday break.
It’s budget planning season for BCS and in the Digital Learning Department, we will be looking at data and usage for our products that are due for renewal in the coming year. Most of our digital classroom resources are purchased using multi-year contracts in order to save the district money and to promote sustainability. Items for renewal during Summer 2022 include:
Discovery Education Science TechBook (K-5)
Flocabulary (K-8)
iScience (6-8)
MobyMax (K-8)
NewsELA (4-8)
Scholastic News/Story Works (K-5)
Studies Weekly (4-5)
While we already have a large variety of resources available for classrooms, we welcome suggestions and recommendations from teachers. Make sure you communicate with your principal during your school budget conversations about current needs. Keep in mind we make every attempt to provide the best, most useful resources while at the same time, not being duplicitous. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any suggestions.
Make sure you check out all the great information and resources included in this month's newsletter below. It is especially important that we continue our focus on cyber safety with our students.
Thanks for all you do,
AD
Copyright Corner
(click the down arrow to see the response to the question)
From a Reader: Books that are recorded and already on YouTube... safe to post in Google Classroom?
Publishers have been incredibly lenient during this recent pandemic about teachers using and posting recordings of texts. First, I don't expect this leniency to last forever. Second, you can link these in your Google Classroom, just be aware that they may disappear without warning should a publisher file a copyright claim with YouTube.
Essentially, the Google Classroom, Canvas Classroom, or SeeSaw Classroom is an extension of your classroom and fair use applies as it would there. That does not give you free reign to digitally create a book copy and hand it out to your students via Google Classroom and not purchase the readily available digital copies, but it does mean that read alouds can be conducted as they would in the regular classroom. Be mindful of distribution and any loss of revenue that may result. These are measuring points for fair use.
School Library Spotlight
A Happy Vending
"Dream big because you never know who is out there that will step up and help make your dreams come true!"
-Allison Gale, Media Specialist at Leland Middle School.
About a year ago, Ms. Gale launched a fundraising campaign to bring a unique vending machine to Leland Middle School - a book vending machine. An online platform helped bring in money for it from various donors in the community. The LMS Battle of the Books team donated some of their fundraising money as well.
Here's how it works: This vending machine runs on gold coins. On one side of the coin, a bookworm. The other side says - I LOVE BOOKS.
Faculty and staff members around the school are given the coins to hand out to any student. Maybe the student aced a test. Maybe the student did something kind for another student. These coins of recognition can be given for any reason whatsoever!
The goal of Ms. Gale's project is twofold: Increase positive behaviors/creative good habits and reward it with reading. Once the single gold coin is dropped into the vending machine and the title is selected, the book makes its way to the student who can keep it forever or share it with others after they are finished. It’s their choice.
The only thing it costs is kindness and positivity. Something we can all agree is worth reading over and over.
Digital Learning Resources
Click on the icon above to view January's newly released Micro-units!
Brunswick County Schools offers many micro-units to assist staff with understanding the digital resources available to them. With each micro-unit, staff earns digital learning credits, which vary depending on the unit of study. The digital learning team has released 20 updated micro-units this month, allowing for staff to learn the latest updates and implement the best strategies for instruction.
1B@T - BrainPop
1B@T - BrainPOP Jr.
1B@T - Canvas Basics
1B@T - Canvas Part Two
1B@T - Flipped and Blended Learning in the Classroom
1B@T - Getting Lost is a Good Thing with Google Earth
1B@T - Google Drive Advanced Applications
1B@T - Google Keep
1B@T - Google Meet
1B@T - Hyperdocs - Don't Just Substitute, Redefine Your Lessons!
1B@T - Let's Jam with Jamboard
1B@T - Managing Your BCS Webpage
1B@T - Study Island Updated
1B@T - The Sound of Chrome Music
1B@T - Using Images Appropriately When Creating Presentations or Multimedia Projects
1B@T - Using Quizizz for Formative and Summative Assessments
1B@T - Using Quizlet for Student Engagement, Formative Assessment, and Summative Assessment
1B@T - Using the NCWiseOwl Online Databases
1B@T - Using Virtual Field Trips to Provide Global Outreach Experiences for Your Students
1B@T - Zoom on In
To learn more about the 1B@T microunits and how YOU can sign up to complete one, click here. Questions? Please reach out to your digital learning specialist!
i-Ready Teacher Toolbox: Support for Tutoring and At-Home Learning
Within your i-Ready Teacher Toolbox, you have exciting resources at your fingertips!
Click on the "Support for Tutoring and At-Home Learning button which will open a PDF.
Via the linked websites, you will be able to access a tutoring support that features standards-based learning activities with scripted support.
Additionally, the at home resources shared with educators were created with the purpose of providing self-directed activities for independent student use.
Each activity can be downloaded as a PDF.
Spotlight on Strategies
This month we are focusing on specific strategies that are ready to implement in the classroom! This month is all about summarizing.
In Discovery Education several Spotlight on Strategies focus on summarizing. Here are three that are ready to go for your classroom!
Students take the most important parts of an article, image or video and summarize it in six words or less. Students could share their six word stories with a partner and discuss similarities and differences.
Students will be assigned a letter to write a summary. They must start the sentence with that letter. Students should watch the video or read the article, taking notes as they go along. Once everyone has written their summary sentence, have students read their summaries. Each student should choose at least three of their peers responses to have a completed summary.
While reading an article or watching a video choose several parts to pause and allow students to make observations about what they read or watched.
Read the article or watch the video a second time without stopping. Have students place an asterik next to five of the most important observations they have made.
Finally, pair students up with a partner to compare the list and write a final summary.
Announcements
To create an announcement:
Go to announcements in your course navigation menu.
Click the +announcement button.
Fill out the title of the announcement.
Type in your announcement using the rich content editor box. You can add images, documents and other media as well as your Google Drive integrations in this area!
Complete the options section and “save”!
Notice you can choose what sections to post to and you can also allow likes or comments! This can help you determine who has interacted with your announcement.
Have announcements appear at the top of students’ home page.
Go to “settings” from your course navigation side bar.
Scroll all the way down and click “more options”.
Click “show recent announcements on Course home page.
Choose the recent default number and click “update course details”.
Did you know that over the summer, all of the student Chromebooks received operating system updates.
What does this mean? Well, NOW your students can annotate a PDF practice sheet right on their Chromebook! No need to install Chrome Extensions or apps - it is built right in!
See the directions below to help get your students using this new feature!
Annotate a PDF on your Chromebook
Increasing teacher effectiveness is fundamental to improving public education. NCCAT provides teachers with new knowledge, skills, teaching methods, best practices and information to take back to their classrooms.
There are many upcoming sessions that focus on Digital Teaching & Learning.
Check them out HERE!
Are you having an issue with dragging and dropping items while in Google Slides using the Chrome browser? Have no fear! Firefox is here!
If you need students to work on drag and drop Google Slides activities on your Newline panel, open your presentation using Firefox as your internet browser.
When in Google Slides, you can optimize your workspace while in editing mode by hiding your filmstrip.
Click on View and Choose Hide Filmstrip or select the < icon at the bottom right of the filmstrip view.
Need more viewing space for the slide content? Try using F11 to take your browser into full screen.
EverFi is a free course/lesson hub with a focus on real-world skills. From Early learning, to Health & Wellness, Financial Literacy, Social-Emotional Learning, and College/Career Readiness.
EverFi offers engaging, self-paced lessons your students can access from anywhere. Our digital platform offers 100+ interactive, game-based lessons for teachers to better engage students at all grade levels. HERE is a list of all of the offerings Everfi has.
Classroom teachers just need to click on the Everfi icon in Clever to get started. Create a class, select the PowerSchool roster to use, and assign an EverFi course for them to complete. When they log into Clever, the assignment will be waiting for them!.
Need help? Email or message your school's Digital Learning Specialist for assistance!
Please click on the icon above to view January's Tech Tips! The focus is on using Sora, our district digital library and all about navigating your device with Windows 10 and your Chrome browser.
Do you need additional tech tips? Check them out here!
Please click on the icon above to check out January's Creation Motivation strategies! We will release three a month to help student's create digitally in the classroom!
Be Cyber Safe Monthly Resources
