iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We understand that families across the province may feel varying degrees of anxiety over the COVID-19 suspension of in-class instruction and closure of early learning programs (except for children of essential workers) and family resource programs. Teaching and learning will continue. Your child’s early childhood educators, teachers, support staff, and administrators are developing many ways to support your child’s learning at home.

While your child’s teachers continue to be the primary guide in helping your child meet curriculum expectations, you can enhance your child’s learning at all ages. The collection of resources on this site can support your child’s well-being and learning growth, and encourage meaningful family-centred learning. New early childhood, Kindergarten to Grade 12, and adult learning supports will be added and updated regularly.

For further questions or comments about supporting your child’s learning at home, contact your child’s teachers or early childhood/family resource program staff. They can best serve you in providing individualized support.

Don’t skip out on art and music while your kids are home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Art and music help kids develop discipline, creativity, confidence, critical thinking skills. It helps build connections with others, improves memory and teaches about different cultures. It strengthens language, reading and math skills. Plus, the arts make us feel better and we could all use a little more of that these days. Here are online art and music resources to inspire kids at home.

Welcome to my 109th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

An abundance of resources and links with STEM connections and activities.

School's back in session, and you're curious how you can start coding in your free time? Never fear, because Aaron Hobson, Code Next Oakland coach and lead curriculum developer, has rallied to assemble a list of opportunities and tools that you can pull from. While geared towards middle and high school students – we've found these resources to be effective for new learners of all ages who are interested in coding, the arts, or just making something with their hands. 

At this day and age of educational technology (i.e. the use of electronic gadgets like iPads in the classroom), these online math resources may help you solve basic to advanced equations in no time:

Perimeter Institute's free digital resources are designed to help teachers explain a range of important physics and science topics. Each compilation includes a set of lesson plans, hands-on activities and demos, modifiable worksheets, background information for teachers, and original PI videos.

Spread the love. As STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) careers continue to rise in demand, America is lagging behind. Can we even begin to change the trajectory so that we can compete with countries like India and Korea on a global level? It’s possible for us to change the tide, but we need to change our attitudes first. If we don’t, the consequences will be severe. Over the next decade, for instance, the number of computer science jobs in the U.S. will outnumber qualified people by 1 million. That’s 1 million jobs for the taking that Americans will miss …

If your school doesn’t teach a course about personal economics, there are many online sites that address the topic as mini-lessons. Some are narrative; others games. Here are fifteen I like. See if one suits you (check here for updates on links):

Free Tools from Leading Education Organizations to help students learn through the COVID-19 Crisis

Wide Open School is a free collection of the best online learning experiences for kids curated by the editors at Common Sense. There is so much good happening, and we are here to gather great stuff and organize it so teachers and families can easily find it and plan each day. "

With schools and local libraries closing due to COVID-19, you maybe worried that your child’s education has stopped. But that doesn’t have to be the case, as there are tons of online (and predominantly free) learning resources available.

The online learning resources we found cover all of the major topics taught in school, such as science, English, math, history, typing, art, reading, music, coding, and physical education. Although they aren’t meant to replace your child’s in-school curriculum, they are more than capable of engaging your children’s brains, teaching them new things, and keeping them productively busy until schools can resume normal function.

With schools closing across the nation, parents and educators are in bit of a panic as they try to figure out how kids can learn and obtain their education from home. If this sounds like you, stop stressing. This is going to be super helpful!

For many of you, the count may already be down to single digits. May and June aren’t the easiest months of the year and I know that you’re hacking your way through the next few weeks, trying to stay on top of stuff. But it doesn’t have to be painful. These resources can help.

Literacy with ICT - Fake NEws Resources compiled by Manitoba Education and Training Staff

Great after-school programs offer students the time and space to learn and experiment on their own terms. Free from curricular pressures, and classroom periods, educators can offer students sustained, deep learning in nontraditional topics like game development, robotics, storytelling, and beyond. These enrichment programs can also provide students with the academic support, test prep, and homework help they need to build skills and confidence. Whether you're running a chess club, a game development program, or a makerspace, or helping students develop their reading and math skills, we've curated some of our favorite digital tools, lesson plans, and curricula. These resources will fit well in after-school contexts, and in many cases they offer students exciting, unique, and interest-driven opportunities that rarely make their way into classrooms.

The goal of computational thinking is really about getting students to use computer type thinking to solve real world problems. So often we are the users of algorithms, but rarely are we creating them. Facilitating this skill for our students will allow them to innovate,  understand, and find purpose. Most of all they will be equiped to fast a world which is constatnly changing.  It is from the book The power of Computational Thinking by Paul Curzon and Peter W McOwan we find the following quote:

“The beauty of Algorithms is that steps can be followed without those involved having any idea of what they are doing and why”

igital technology evolved with supersonic speed in the last few decades and it is not slowing down.

Today you cannot be competitive if you don’t use the right web tools and services. Projects are being won by delivering the best quality at the best price. Web resources are your partners. Every each of them should be critically analyzed and checked for the benefits.

We have done the hard work for you and we are presenting 25+ carefully selected resources which you will find useful to use in your daily projects. There are different WordPress themes, plugins and hosting solutions, but also website builders and excellent services.

Makerspaces are becoming a big deal for schools all over the world. In these unique areas, student ingenuity takes the lead. From primary to senior grades makerspaces drive innovation, creativity, and critical thinking. Since their popularity is increasing, you can source makerspace project ideas from lots of educators and entrepreneurs who have had success with them.

If you’re new to the idea, this video gives a simple description of what makerspaces are. The key ideas behind them are geared toward creativity and problem-solving. This is why they’re on the rise in education (and why shop class isn’t just for the big kids anymore).

The free online design resources that are available today are versatile, simple, and powerful. They are user-friendly and social media-oriented in every way. They’re also free to use, which makes it easy to explore and experiment with them as much as you like. The tools listed in this post fit the bill nicely. Design a website, create vector graphics, edit photos, design icons, create a visual resume, and much more.