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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
April 17, 2020 5:53 PM
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Kids are getting more bored by the day. We wish we could go back to school to see our friends. But some of us are also really scared about getting the coronavirus, and we don’t want our friends and family to get it either.
That’s what kids across the country told The New York Times (where my dad works) when they were asked about learning from home during the coronavirus outbreak.
Some are having fun with their parents and their brothers and sisters, but most are missing their teachers, their friends and their normal lives. (As Dahlia Stringer, who is 11 like me, said in her letter, “Everyone knows little sisters are annoying” — little brothers sometimes are, too.) And a lot are frustrated about missing out on things like spring break, field trips and graduation.
“I’m hoping that things will be back to normal someday,” wrote Sasha Udovich, 9, from Los Angeles.
Same. Home-school is definitely boring, but I really hope we can make it through this safely and return to how things used to be. I miss my friends.
Here are some of the feelings about learning from home that kids across the country shared in letters and emails. They were gathered together and lightly edited by Adeel Hassan, who works with my dad.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
April 9, 2020 10:15 AM
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"Starting this week, all high school students and teachers in the United States can get free digital access to The New York Times until July 6. If you want to sign up your school or class, here’s how. "We’re so excited to welcome all these new readers! Whether you’re a seasoned Times reader, or brand new, here’s a list of 21 things that you can do with a Times subscription to get inspired. Play the game Vertex or do the daily Mini. Discover new music. Find recipes. Work out. And, of course, follow the news. "Since there are as many ways to read The Times as there are Times readers, we invite students all month to click around, see what catches their eye and then tell us about it in our Special April Reading Challenge. We’ll select our favorite comments to honor on The Learning Network. "Also starting this week? Our Third Annual Podcast Contest. We invite all high school and middle school students to create original podcasts (five minutes or less) and submit them to us by May 19. Podcasting can be a great activity to do from home, and we have a lesson plan to guide you through the process. "Finally, if you want to learn more about The Learning Network, please join our April 15 webinar about using our site for remote learning. You’ll have the chance to meet our team, who are all former teachers. Thank you for being a member of our growing community."
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
April 7, 2020 8:37 AM
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COVID-19: Special Offers, Events, News, and Updates From Library Vendors, Publishers, Online Services, and Others
Filed by Gary Price on March 17, 2020
The links below provide updates and special offers from vendors and other companies that work with the library community.
Latest Addition
April 6, 2020
Via Jim Lerman
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 29, 2020 12:48 AM
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Today we are sharing with you some excellent Google Docs templates to use with students to create newspapers. These templates belong to the old Docs template gallery which, of course, you can still use in your Drive. Our selection is based on templates with the highest ratings but you can check for more templates using the keyword ‘newspaper’ in the search box in Google Docs template gallery.
Using these templates will enable you to create beautiful newspapers without having to worry about the technical part in the process. Templates come with pre-designed layouts, different columns, fonts, colours etc. You only need to tweak them a little bit and use your own content to make these newspapers uniquely yours. To use any of these templates, make sure you are logged in to your Google account, click on the title of the template then on ‘use this template’. A copy of the template will open in your Docs where you can start editing and customizing it the way you want.
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 23, 2020 3:58 PM
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"All aboard! Blast off on a magical journey that will enrich you and your child’s creativity!
"My Sandwich is a Spaceship is a fun and entertaining parenting book that will enhance your child’s creativity, and help you teach your children 10 creative thinking skills essential for success, no matter what they choose to do in the future. These skills will benefit you and your child for a lifetime, and the time to develop them is now. Take a moment and watch your children play... They sing, dance, talk to imaginary friends, and use their creative minds to invent the most wonderful excuses for why they don’t have to go to bed. Creative thinking is a way of seeing the world, a way of thriving in a constantly changing environment. And most importantly, creativity is a tool for solving all kinds of problems.
"Creativity teachers, researchers, and moms, Cyndi Burnett and Michaelene Dawson-Globus bring two of their passions together in My Sandwich is a Spaceship: Creativity for Parents & Young Children. The authors say: "This book is about two of our favorite topics: creativity and children. We have written it because we believe it is never too soon to start teaching kids how to use their creativity." And don't miss the new full-color graphics designed by world-renowned children's book author, Barney Saltzberg!Buy My Sandwich is a Spaceship: Creative Thinking for Parents and Young Children: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com"
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
March 13, 2020 12:52 PM
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Access Mindomo for Free on Google Drive
Jim Lerman's insight: Mindomo is a very full-featured and easy-to-use app suite for concept mapping and similar presentation diagrams. Accessing it via Google Drive provides for easy integration with other free Google apps. I find concept mapping to be an essential tool to teach writing as well as critical thinking.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 28, 2020 9:07 PM
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I’m terrible at taking notes, only because I don’t have one of those fancy Samsung smartphones that lets you draw your thoughts right on the lock screen. Instead, I have to yell at a digital assistant—which sometimes gets it right—or I have to authenticate into my phone, pull up my notes app, start a new note, type in my thoughts, make sure the note saves correctly, et cetera. It’s a process, but one that can be a made a little bit easier by enabling iOS’ buried “Instant Notes” feature.
Turn this on, and you’ll be able to add a quick Notes icon to your iPhone or iPad’s Control Center. This means you won’t even have to fuss with unlocking your device in order to scribble down a quick thought. You can set your device to automatically pull up the last note you were working on, if you’d rather edit a larger, running list than create a new note each time you tap the button.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
February 25, 2020 9:32 AM
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We asked our TCEA members to share their favorite reading and writing websites, apps, or tools to use for student learning and would like to share that great list with you. Feel free to add your favorite ELA resources at the bottom! Jim Lerman's insight: Great collection!
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 7, 2020 9:38 PM
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Description by The Scout Report "For the storyteller in all of us, Narratively provides a platform to share and read stories that embody all aspects of the human experience. Founded in 2012, Narratively has nearly a decade of experience reimagining the way we craft and consume stories. Their mission is simple: "human stories, boldly told." This "storytelling studio" looks to uplift voices of the "underdog," the imaginative, and the marginalized. They do so by embracing a variety of expressive mediums from podcasts, to short stories, to documentaries and a variety of topics, such as crime, culture, and culinary arts. Recent pieces include (for example) "The Sea Farming Sisters in Recovery," which highlights sustainable farming in Maine by a group of women "in recovery for alcohol." This resource may be of interest to those looking for a creative spark from global, authentic, and passionate storytelling. With a network of storytellers thousands strong and spanning all corners of the world, Narratively highlights content often overlooked by other news outlets. Learn, create, connect, and refresh; there's always something new to read and explore."
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 7, 2020 9:18 PM
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In celebrating Black History Month, we can’t help but be grateful for the long and rich history of stories penned by African-American authors across the centuries and into our present day. Through the forms of fiction and poetry, prose and nonfiction, their written worlds serve to inform, challenge, enthrall, and ignite the creativity of young learners. Yet, in spite of their contributions, it is undeniable that the publishing industry underrepresents authors of color—there’s less marketing, fewer books published about non-white communities, and fewer people of color in leadership roles. Educators serve an important function in closing these gaps. Because we love lightening the load for educators, we compiled a list of books whose topics deal with the intersection of race, young people, and our contemporary reality.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 6, 2020 11:32 PM
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"Claude McKay’s novel “Romance in Marseille” could hardly sound more contemporary. A black man, Lafala, loses his legs as a result of his white captors’ cruelty, then, in a striking allegory for reparations, receives a compensatory windfall. He takes his new fortune from New York to Marseille, a hub of the African diaspora, and plans to return to West Africa in hopes of undoing his colonial education and reintegrating in the village of his birth. Meanwhile he lives in a sexually liberated working-class milieu, where queer love is accepted as a fact of life, no more subject to judgment than its heterosexual counterpart.
"The book’s themes — queerness, the legacy of slavery, postcolonial African identity — are among those at the forefront of literature today. But McKay lived from 1889 to 1948, and was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Now, a century after that movement began, “Romance in Marseille” will finally be published for the first time on Feb. 11. Its debut coincides with recent shifts in thinking about the Renaissance, which is increasingly seen as grappling not only with race but with class, gender, sexuality and nationality." Jim Lerman's insight: Fascinating article; right on time for Black History Month.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 3, 2020 12:29 PM
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"The Times is excited to partner with Verizon to provide free access to nytimes.com, in line with our shared commitment to fostering education. "Faculty and students at Title 1 high schools can now receive free New York Times digital subscriptions while connected to their school network. Register your school below for two years of unlimited articles, videos and beyond — as well as interactive New York Times Learning Network content that brings our journalism into the classroom with lesson plans, writing prompts and quizzes. "This partnership also provides nytimes.com to Title 1 middle schools via the Verizon Innovative Learning platform. Learn more here. Jim Lerman's insight: I think this is fantastic. Thanks to Vicki Davis for passing along this great news.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
January 31, 2020 8:34 AM
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"Our new Mentor Text series spotlights writing from The Times that students can learn from and emulate. "This entry aims to help support those participating in our STEM-writing contest, in which students are invited to choose an issue or question in science, technology, engineering, math or health that interests them, then write a 500-word explanation that will engage and enlighten readers. "For even more on how to help your students write interesting, clear and meaningful informational pieces, please see our related writing unit."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
April 15, 2020 10:51 PM
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I built this site with a simple idea – that writing should be fun. Challenging? Yes. Important? Absolutely. But also fun. When students love writing, they write more (improving fluency) and they work to improve their writing (improving quality).
As a former middle school teacher, I lived for those magical moments when students would be so into their writing that they would groan when I announced a transition time. I loved watching reluctant writers grow into passionate authors who had found their voice.
This is why I’ve created these free video prompts that you can use as you inspire your students to fall in love with writing.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Cultivating Creativity
April 8, 2020 12:35 PM
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"Most professors would admit that they’ve found themselves frustrated when grading papers. Yes, sometimes those frustrations might stem from students ignoring your clear, strategic, and explicit instructions, but more often, I’d argue, “bad” papers are a result of how and what we’re asking of students, and how well we really understand our goals for them. Further, we often struggle to strike a balance between providing too much information and too little, and placing ourselves in a novice’s shoes is difficult. In an effort to combat these challenges, I present a series of questions to ask yourself as you begin developing or revising prompts." Jim Lerman's insight: This is a stimulating read.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
April 2, 2020 7:13 PM
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Comment by Stephen Downes: "Publishers have unsurprisingly gone apoplectic over the Internet Archive's declaration of a “National Emergency Library.” and consequent decision to allow unfettered access to copyright works in its collection. "It is showing exactly why we need to defend copyright even when violators assure us all will be well. This isn’t a slippery slope — it’s a landslide.” On the other hand - what, exactly, are publishers losing? Bookstores are closed. Libraries are closed. Publishers have done almost nothing in response to the crisis (except to gleefully count their windfall profits from increased digital book sales). The Internet Archive is simply replacing what was already available."
Via Jim Lerman
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from :: The 4th Era ::
March 29, 2020 12:43 AM
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From The New Yorker Article: "This week the Internet Archive, in San Francisco, announced—and, in the blink of an eye, opened—the National Emergency Library, a digital collection of 1.4 million books. Until June 30th, or the end of the national emergency in the United States (“whichever is later”), anyone, anywhere in the world, can check books out of this library—for free. As Brewster Kahle, the digital librarian at the Internet Archive, wrote in an online announcement, if you can afford to buy books, please buy books! Bookstores still need your business. But, by God, if you can’t afford them, or if the books you need aren’t in any bookstore, and, especially, if you are one of the currently more than one billion students and teachers shut out of your classroom, please: sign up, log on, and borrow!" "...we have focused on acquiring and digitizing books from the 1920s-1990s that don’t have an ebook available except for our scanned copy," so says the National Emergency Library From the National Emergency Library FAQ: "Do you have a collection for students organized by reading level or grade?
Yes! The Internet Archive has partnered with ISKME and an expert group of educators and school librarians to develop the Universal School Library, a curated list of 2,300 books organized by reading level and grade. You can browse the whole collection or find books for a particular reader:
Reading Level - Grade 3
Reading Level - Grade 4
Reading Level - Grade 5
Reading Level - Grade 6
Reading Level - Grade 7
Reading Level - Grade 8
Reading Level - Grade 9
Reading Level - Grade 10
Reading Level - Grade 11
Reading Level - Grade 12
Reading Level - Adult Reader" And finally, the NEL FAQ says: "I get ebooks from my public library. How is this different from OverDrive or Hoopla?
Our focus is providing online access to older books that don’t have an ebook. OverDrive and Hoopla are great services and we fully support your public library and their work in making those books available to you. Those services generally have the latest bestsellers and popular titles, along with a limited backlist."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
March 22, 2020 8:50 PM
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Literacy is a part of all content areas. In this workshop preview, Dr. Jamie Hipp shares how to use the theater skills of scriptwriting to deepen reading and writing processes in your classroom.
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 29, 2020 12:26 AM
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Communication skills are of vital importance in the world today. With an increasingly reliance on technology, teachers sometimes fear that students are losing the art of face-to-face and formal written communication. But instead of fearing technology’s impact on student communication, why can’t teachers leverage technology to help students hone their written communication skills? Whether students are still struggling with basic to complex grammatical concepts, or they need help elaborating their thoughts in thoughtful, sensical written pieces, teachers can rest assured: there’s an app for that!
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 25, 2020 11:50 PM
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Cultivating Creativity
February 13, 2020 10:26 PM
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Description by Stephen Downes: "This short article was published in Spanish in January. I argue that there is a distinctive way to learn using technology. It's different from learning with textbooks or learning with classroom instruction. In these, the focus is on understanding and remembering. It is content based. The learning objective is defined as mastery of this body of knowledge. Learning with technology, by contrast, is outcome based. It is defined in terms of skills or competencies, as how to achieve a certain outcome using technology as a tool. In this post, I outline the steps." Jim Lerman's insight: A simply elegant article that states clearly and succinctly the key characteristics that distinguish learning through the use of technology from learning for understanding and memory. An important piece.
Via Jim Lerman
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
February 7, 2020 9:24 PM
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"Autumn Maison, a ninth-grader at New Harmony High in New Orleans, always liked writing. But nothing prepared her for the joy of seeing her first story published.
“Oh, my gosh, I am so excited,” she said. “It feels like you’re a real author. It’s not just some essay you turn in to your teacher. It’s something that’s going to be around forever, something everyone is going to see.”
"Autumn and her classmates in humanities class spent two weeks last fall working with volunteers from the literacy nonprofit 826 New Orleans to write, discuss, edit, and publish a book of short stories. “Once Upon a Time in a City Called New Orleans” is a 120-page anthology of student work, released in January, that imagines New Orleans in a future ravaged by unchecked climate change and environmental degradation."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
February 6, 2020 11:47 PM
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the National Novel Writing Month project, which challenges people to write a 50,000-word novel in November. NaNoWriMo, as it is known, is a nonprofit that supports creative writing and education. Those who sign up for the group’s free annual event get community support, progress tracking and motivational advice to complete a book draft.
If you think you have a novel in you, here is a quick guide to digital tools to help you along your way.
(And if the thought of cranking out an average of 1,667 words a day in the NaNoWriMo challenge doesn’t fit in with your schedule or you need more prep time — don’t despair. You could write it at your own pace.)
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Rescooped by
Jim Lerman
from Into the Driver's Seat
February 5, 2020 10:44 PM
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"The National African American Read-In is the nation’s first and oldest event dedicated to diversity in literature. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. This initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world.
"During the month of February, schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens are urged to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting an African American Read-In. Hosting an event can be as simple as bringing together friends to share a book or as elaborate as arranging public readings and media presentations that feature professional African American writers."
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Scooped by
Jim Lerman
January 31, 2020 8:40 AM
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"We’ve been welcoming student writers to our site for years, inviting them to post thoughts to our daily prompts, analyze multimedia compositions in our live-moderated forums, and submit formal work to our many annual contests. "But there has long been a missing piece. Though we’ve provided plenty of places to practice, we’ve only occasionally published resources to help teach young people how to write. This school year, we’re making up for that gap with a new series called Mentor Texts. "If the term is new to you, here is how the National Writing Project defines it: Mentor texts are pieces of literature that you — both teacher and student — can return to and reread for many different purposes. They are texts to be studied and imitated … Mentor texts help students to take risks and be different writers tomorrow than they are today. It helps them to try out new strategies and formats. They should be [texts] that students can relate to and can even read independently or with some support." "And of course, a mentor text doesn’t have to be in the form of a book — a mentor text might be a poem, a newspaper article, song lyrics, comic strips, manuals, essays, almost anything." "Thanks to the 1,000-plus fresh articles published every week on NYTimes.com, we’re in no danger of running out of possible material. In fact, the hardest part of creating this series may be choosing from among too many good options. "In general, though, each edition in the series will … -
Spotlight an excellent piece of writing published in The New York Times, whether on the front page or from sections like Opinion, Arts, Science, Sports, Business, Food, Travel or Style. -
Try to demystify for students the effective craft moves writers make, then provide exercises that invite them to try those same moves in their own work. -
Show students how the writing genres they study in school can be used in real-world contexts. "You can find the whole series in this column, beginning with several intended to support narrative writing. We’ve created these — on telling short, memorable stories; using details to show rather than tell; crafting a narrative arc; and more — to accompany the first unit of our yearlong Writing Curriculum, which will culminate in a Personal Narrative Essay Contest for students. Over the course of the school year, we’ll also be creating Mentor Text editions to support argumentative, informational and analytic writing, among other genres."
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