Have you tried using the Immersive Reader available in different applications in Office 365?

 

Read this blog by the Microsoft Education Team that shows you Learning Tools in action, including immersive reader. 

 

 

 It's so easy to forget that just because students know how to easily "navigate" a smart phone it doesn't mean they actually know how to use technology efficiently. It is everyone's responsibility to prepare students to use technology as a productivity tool, not just a game, but even more importan to know how to be safe and create a digital footprint they can be proud of.

 

Here are a few resrouces that can help you get started. 

• Microsoft Digital Citizenship Toolkit for Educators resources provided by Microsfot with lessons for all grade levels. 

 

Padlet with Resrouces gathered by Pearland ISD's ETS team with a variety of lessons, videos and interesting articles. 

 

Office Lens

Office Lens can

• turn printed materials into digital materials in Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, Outlook or OneDrive

• easily turn text from a book into an editable Word document

• read aloud with the Immersive Reader

Online training in the Microsoft community

 

This is a wonderful visual of where our classrooms need to be heading.

Visit Kasey Bell's website to read the full article. 

Have you heard about an Escape Room? You basically lock people up in a room and provide them with challenges which they have to figure out to break out of the room before they run out of time. Well, an Escape Room One Note Edition is essentially the same thing except you don't have to lock anybody up.

You can say that an Escape Room One Note Edition is a modification of the wonderful BreakoutEDU challenges. 

 

The videos below show you how to play and how to set it up.

 

Click HERE to view some sample Escape Room. (Browse the menu on the left-hand side to explore different Escape rooms)

 

Also check out this wonderful SWAY, by Fredda, who has put together a great list of resources which can be used to create challenges for your Escape Room. CLICK HERE

  

How to set up?

 

How to play?

Mystery Skype

 

What is it?

Mystery Skype is an educational game, played by two classrooms trying to guess the location of the other class using yes/no questions. Once the game is over we can allow a few minutes for each class to share some interesting facts about their cultures or where they live. 

 

 

 

 

Lesson Plan

 Where to find classes to Skype with?

-Twitter 

• @Skype Classroom
• @MicrosoftEDU
• #MysterySkype
• #Skypetolearn

Facebook 

• Mystery Skype group
• Educator groups

Google + communities

• Connected Classrooms
• Mystery Skype/Google Hangouts

Microsoft Education Community

• Skype in the classroom 

 

Resources:

Google Maps

Countries of the World

World Book

Time Zone Converter

Map

Time Zone Map

 

 

 

 

Quizlet is a vocabulary tool that has existed for a long time now, but recently added a new awesome feature called Quizlet LIVE!

 

Quizlet LIVE creates a collaborative, engaging game that allows students to practice vocabulary while they have fun. 

Quizlet LIVE is an easy activity for BYOD lesson because it can be played using any device that is connected to the internet (cell phones, tablets, laptops, iPads, desktops, etc). 

 

How it works:

Teachers select a vocabulary set with at least 12 questions and select the LIVE option to start a game. This generates a code that will be shared with students. Students use a web browser to access quizlet.com/live and enter the code provided by the teacher. When the teacher sees that all her students have joined, he/she clicks on create a game and students are randomely grouped in different animal categories. Students find their groups and once they are ready the teachers starts the game by clicking on Start Game. The FUN part about Quizlet LIVE is that each student in the group will have different answers appear on their screens, only ONE of them has the right answer. This forces students to collaborate to figure out the answer and advance to the next question. If the group gets a wrong answer they start from zero and forces students to review all terms again. Once a team wins the game stops. At the end the students get a review of the cards they need to study for next time. 

Requirements to play Quizlet LIVE:

1. Create a FREE Quizlet account
2. Use a set that has at least 12 vocabulary terms
3. Must have at least 6 participants to start a game

 

This summer I discovered ClassroomScreen!

ClassroomScreen is a website with a variety of classroom tools all in one place for FREE! No downloads required or anything fancy, just go directly to the website and start using it. 

Here are a few things you can do in Classroom Screen:

How it works
Project this in your classroom.

You can… 

• choose a background 
• type your instruction in the text area and zoom
• choose a work symbol 
• set a timer or show the clock 
• use the traffic light 
• pick a random name
• do some simple math
• draw in-screen or full-screen
• generate a qr-code
• drag and drop the icons in the right place

 

Here is a picture of a busy ClassroomScreen at work. You can keep it as busy or as clean as you'd like. I tested the random name picker and it was as easy as typing student names or pasting a list directly from a word document. This would be great to randomly call on students to participate in class.

 

I love that this application is available in different languages, see picture below for languages available.

Don't waste any more time and start using ClassroomScreen!!