Tech Bytes

 Make Videos for Learning Really Count!     Do you love Ed Puzzle? Do you want your students to really focus on the content in the videos you post? Would you like to know whether students were really watching and learning? Well, here's your free and wonderful way to do that!     Our district-purchased video library service, Learn360,   has a wonderful new feature. A quiz feature!     In short, teachers can set t he video to stop at certain sections and ask the student a question (Multiple Choice, Short Answer, True or False).  When that quiz is distributed via the unique URL, the student views the video and answers the questions.  The student can download a PDF with the results. The results are also emailed to the teacher. Check out this video or this article for more information. Remember that you have an Infobase Learn 360 account with Palmdale School District with thousands of videos! Look for the link on your Classlink landing page. Or reach out to your district ed tech coach

 Reflection Helps Learning Stick!     Research shows that students who reflect on their learning retain more of that learning.   Here are two wonderful ideas to facilitate that in your distance learning classroom.       The first comes from our own Michelle Lake at Buena Vista.  She uses a Frayer Model graphic organizer to help students reflect on their lessons from the week.        " Frayer their week every week with what worked, what they liked, and they rate themselves on their progress. # eduprotocols @ jcorippo ."           Another idea is this Google Slide deck reposted on Alice Keeler's Teacher Tech blog.  Write a Reflection slide presentation Kim, Kyoungna, Barbara L. Grabowski, and Priya Sharma. "Designing a Classroom as a Learner-Centered Learning Environment Prompting Students' Reflective Thinking in K-12."  Association for Educational Communications and Technology  (2004).

Use Pictures for ELD - Improve Understanding! Or even just getting students thinking and making connections!     Images improve understanding for ELD and those who are English Only. Here are 3 great websites where you can find images to back up your lessons in every subject area!       Use them with Synchronous lessons, in videos and slide decks or share them with students who are creating their own responses and synthesizing their learning! Pics 4 Learning Flickr Commons Unsplash     And...what about Creativity and increasing writing fluency and journaling? Try this one: Once Upon A Picture