 1. This week's cool site It's not often that I come across a site I haven't seen before but I did stumble across a new one for me. Forgive me if I am recommending a site you already know about but I found this one cute! There are some good anchor activities here. Check out Toy Theater!  2. STEAM idea for the week STEAM challenges don't always have to require messy materials. The purpose behind STEAM is to get students problem solving. You can use a simple site like Physics Games!  3. This week's resource Would you like to create your own app for your classroom? Shake Up Learning has a great idea for how to use Google Slides to accomplish this. She even provides the template and will walk you through how to use it. Note: Although this isn't difficult, there are a lot of steps involved. If you are interested, please let me know if you need my help. 4. Google Tip You really need to check out Google's Chrome Web Store! Here are several digital math apps that you may appreciate. Remember, all you need to do is send Joe an email and ask him to add these to your students' Chromebooks. 5. Friday at the Movies - September is gone. We should say goodbye by sending it off to Earth, Wind, and Fire's September as played by the Floppotron!
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 1. No that we have chromebooks, have you ever considered playing a QR code game? The first thing you need to do is head over the the Chrome Web Store and choose a QR Code Generator. There are plenty to choose from! Send an email to Joe Goldman with the name of the extension and ask that he add it to the grade level's Chromebooks. The browse through the QR Code tasks on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you find something that you like, you are welcome to purchase it but what I like to do is look through what others have and then create my own task cards. This way you can be assured that it aligns with our SOLs. Once you have your task or activity, you can use the QR Code extension and the Chromebook's built in camera to run the activity.  2. I found this wonderful graphic organizer research project online. I altered it to fit in with the first of the year's region unit. Fourth grade teachers can use it to research VA's regions while Fifth grade can research US regions. Click on the image and then Make A Copy to get your own copy.  3. Here are five quick tips for Google:
 4. I recently had a conversation with a teacher who asked me what STEAM stood for. STEAM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. It consists of a challenge that integrates one or more of the components and can be used in any curriculum. Here is a really cool STEAM project that can be used as a spelling center. Provide the students with a lego mat and two colors of lego bricks. Also make sure that there is a copy of the binary alphabet close by. With the binary code letters are made using only the digits 1 & 0. Encourage the students to "build their words" using the binary code. When you are looking at letters for as long as it will take to find the correct bricks, you are bound to remember the words! This idea came from a book called Code with Lego; however, I think you could do the same thing if you had two different colors of unifix cubes or two colors of unit blocks. 5. Friday at the Movies - Eddie B, what can I say? He says things I WISH I could say. LOL!!  1. Check out this site they have tagged as Teachers Give Teachers! It is full of hyperdocs. A child's first assertion of independence comes early on around the age of 2 or 3 with a declaration of "I can do it myself!" Sometime after they enter school we inadvertently start teaching them to wait for us to tell them what to do, how to do, when, and why to do. A hyper doc is a carefully crafted lesson play which puts the ownership of learning back into the students' hands by including links to sites that provide information about what they are learning as well as links to means of documenting what they have learned. Browse through this site and if you would like help in creating a hyperdoc, please le tme know.  2. Robots, robots, everywhere! We now have enough Bee-Bots, Spheros, Ozobots, MBots, Colby Jacks, and Dash robots for whole class learning tasks. I use to go to conferences where these tools were showcased and lament the fact that our students didn't have an opportunity to use these tools. Over the years we have been able to collect enough of each of these robots for an entire class to take part in a robotic learning activity. Please! Schedule a time to meet with me so we can plan an engaging learning experience with your students!  3. This is a favorite activity from last year. I used this with a couple of classes and students loved it! To get your own Time Cover file, please click on the image. Then click: Make a Copy.  4. STEAM idea of the week Why not schedule a breakout session? What is a breakout? Breakout is a challenge where students solve puzzles based on content. The solved puzzles provide clues that will open a lock. The prize is the journey. I use to think I had to put something in the box that the students would find once they solved all the clues and opened the box. Nope! I discovered that just the process of figuring out the clue and being able to get into the box was reward enough for most students. I have created or hosted breakouts for grades 1-5. Let's get together and plan one for your class! 5. Friday at the Movies - Long but good.  1. Number one on my list this week is a really good article that was sent to ITRTs by Jean Weller, our "boss" on the state level. Adults complain often that the computer is making books obsolete and that it is not teaching students to read. But what is the truth? Check out this article on the matter.  2. STEAM Idea for the Week -Flexagon This would be a wonderful morning "art-tivity" or a great one to use with math. Have your students make Flexagons. Flexagons, originally created in 1939, are flat models, usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be flexed or folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front. Here is a site that explains how to make one and provides a template for you to print out for use. They were originally created by Princeton graduate student Arthur Stone and became a huge fad when Martin Gardner published them in The Scientific American years later.  3. I posted this last year but I love this idea so I felt it was worth reposting. I loved it when the teacher put a smilie face or a sticker on my paper. Here is the article which explains how to do this digitally. You can create stickers and "put a sticker" on your student's Google Doc. Please let me know if you need help.  4. This week's resource was created by Gail Moore. She called it a Homework menu but this could be adapted to use with any content and subject. To get your own copy, please click on the image and then go to FILE->MAKE A COPY. 5. Friday at the Movies-This is Dash, our new friend who is on his way. |
Melanie LewisHi, my name is Melanie Lewis. I am an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Amherst County Public Schools, located in the beautiful state of Virginia. I LOVE my job! I get to work on my hobby, anything that has to do with computers. I get to work with teachers and students, and I am definitely a people person. Plus, I DO NOT have to give grades. Wonderful, huh? Let me know how I can help you better integrate technology into your classroom. Archives
July 2020
ACPS' 1st computers
I know only one thing about the technology that awaits us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with it. ~Jason Ohler
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