April 10, 2018
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Health Check
Keep your computer healthy by checking your extensions. As you browse websites and click around, some sites may put extensions in your browsing session without you knowing it. Several of these can cause issues as you attempt to open new tabs, perform searches, or attempt to download needed files from sites.
Interactive (Digital) Notebooks
Interactive notebooks are a great way for students to create, write, and make meaning...when they are done well. When done poorly, it is merely a mess of glued pages and wasted time.
Digital notebooks are a whole different story!
Google Slides make the perfect tool for digital notebooks:
Slides come in multiple pages (slides).
You can resize the pages so it is a standard sheet of paper (File > Page Setup> Custom> 8.5" x 11")
It is not linear like a document, so you can design it however you want.
The lines shapes, text, images and more you can add to the slides are like the parts you glue on an interactive notebook...only multimedia.
Google Slides is free and you can add as many pages as you want.
Since it is cloud storage the notebook can be accessed from any device, and won't clutter up your classroom.
Ideas for digital notebooks:
Image annotation - students pull in an image then use shapes to help annotate over image
Caption This! - students use speech bubbles/thought bubble shapes over an image.
Draggable manipulatives - vocabulary words, shapes for addition/subtraction, protons/neutrons/electrons for an atom
Digital diorama/map - recreate a scene from a story, history, etc. Have students add text boxes to label
Comic strips - students can pull in images from multiple sources and add text boxes/speech bubbles (great for foreign language!)
Lab reports - students describe their steps and thought processes as they complete labs
Series of pictures - students can show how steps in a process happen in any content. How to do burpees in PE, solve an algorithm in math, events that lead to war, etc.
Coordinate Plane - set the background of the slide as a coordinate plane and students can use small circles to plot points and add text boxes explaining the problem
Review time should be fun!
Quizlet Live is a great way to keep review lessons engaging and interactive. Quizlet has been around for years and is often the go-to tool for teachers to review vocabulary, but did you know you can use the website to review concepts too?
Quizlet Live takes it up a notch by allowing teams of students to work together to answer questions in a race with other teams in live time. There are pre-made quizzes ready to use, or you can make your own custom quiz to test students knowledge.
Make review fun and give Quizlet Live a try today!
