Coonley Tech News

Happy Holidays! As our winter break approaches here are some tech ideas to keep in mind as you start planning for the new year!

Recently we've seen an increase in fake news online making this a topic that is critical to teach to students. Below are a list of resources for you to explore.

NPR Article: How to Self Check News

Fake or Real? A fun Google Search Challenge

Wall Street Journal Article: Kids Don't Know When News is Fake

Article: How Facebook is Addressing Fake News

Common Sense Media's How to Spot Fake News

Here's one about a professor that teaches how to write fake news!

During the fall I had the opportunity to teach a graduate course to 11 fabulous District 90 teachers. The topic (of course) was integrating technology into their classroom. There were classroom teachers, enrichment teachers and support personnel such as ELL, Social Work, and Speech represented. These educators created some amazing samples of EdTech projects that you could easily do with your kids! Take a look:

Music Projects: Use Thinglink to match instrument pictures to their sound and then create an activity using QR codes where students have to match instruments. Another great idea: make music word clouds!

Speech Resource: Ms. Oliva works with her speech students to practice sounds. Parents often ask for ideas of what they can do at home. She created a Smore Newsletter with information for specific sounds. Soon she can build an entire library that can be placed on her website for students and parents to access anytime!

QR Codes can be linked to videos. In this example, the QR codes that are displayed on the tree link to student leaf observation videos.

Use Blendspace to organize resources on different topics (which can then be embedded on your website for future reference). Here is one on Veteran's Day.

Thanks to all of the Coonley teachers that took part in the optional professional development. For those of you unable to attend, here is a link to the presentation. Let me know if you'd like to meet to learn more.

Still figuring out Twitter? There are lots of places to get ideas. Coonley Teachers, remember to sign up for Mr. Carpenter's Twitter PD on January 19th. In the meantime, here are some resources to check out during your break:

Twitter's Education page: https://about.twitter.com/safety/educators

My Post on 5 Tips to Start Tweeting with Students

My Post on Mid-year Twitter Tweaks (this post also has a Twitter Guide at the end)

60 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

Created by Nicole M Zumpano for Coonley School educators, open to everyone.

Follow me @nmzumpano