We Are Thankful for Our USD Community

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to thank all of you for your hard work and dedication to the students and families in our community. I feel very blessed to be working in the Union School District for many reasons, but mostly because of everyone's kindness and generosity. Today I thought I'd share a video titled World Without Teachers. It comes from the Jubilee Project YouTube channel, a channel I happened to stumble upon recently. I definitely don't think that we need to wait until May to thank teachers for all that they do. Enjoy your Thanksgiving break!

HyperDocs to Create Simple Thanksgiving and Digital Citizenship Digital Stories

A Thanksgiving Story

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, why not have your students create a Thanksgiving inspired story? To get students started thinking about things to be thankful for, here's Kid President's 25 Reasons to be Thankful! Find more Thanksgiving related videos in my YouTube Thanksgiving playlist. 

Once students have been thinking about all the things that they are thankful for, here's a HyperDoc to help them create a thanksgiving digital story of their own. If you need it, I've created a screencast that explains my thinking behind the Hyperdoc. All you have to do is have them go to bit.ly/wevideotg. From there, students can explore, learn, help each other and create!

Digital Citizenship Contest Deadline Extended!

Since our Digital Citizenship Media Contest ended up being launched later than intended, we have extended the contest until Wednesday, December 14th.

This year we will be judging entries based on 3 categories: digital graphics, digital stories, and digital recordings. To get students writing scripts and creating videos in WeVideo, try having students take the Digital Citizenship Video Challenge by going to the HyperDoc at: bit.ly/wevideodc. In WeVideo, storyboard mode is the simplest way to drag in pictures and create a basic digital story.

Here's a video to help inform your students about the contest and get them started creating. If you need help teaching digital citizenship lessons, or would like support or advice with creating videos in the classroom, please don't hesitate to contact any of the EdTech ToSAs.

Be Part of the Movement! Just do one “Hour of Code” by guest blogger, Kristy Chia

Calling on all USD teachers to participate in this year’s Hour of Code! Join over 100 million students in over 180 countries for one hour during the week of December 5-11. It’s an exciting way to introduce your students to Computer Science.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Check out this quick and easy how-to guide. Code.org provides many activity choices. There are a variety of fun online and offline coding resources for students such as Star Wars, Minecraft, and Frozen themed code activities.  

All activities are self-paced and students follow step-by-step instructions.  You can find one that is just right for your students by using the filters for grade, experience level, and device.

Step 2: Once you’ve chosen a lesson you’d like to use with your class, have your class watch an introductory video about Computer Science or one of the inspirational videos.  

Step 3: Provide an hour of uninterrupted time for students to explore Hour of Code on their own and watch their engagement and excitement!

Step 4: Celebrate! Share your #HourofCode on Social Media to celebrate with other learners around the world!  And print out certificates for your students for completing HOC!

Step 5: Let us know your classroom participated in Hour of Code by filling out this form by 12/15 It’ll help us keep track of the number of students within USD that participate and you will be entered into a raffle to win a prize!

Step 6: Let the Hour of Code folks know your students participated this year and help push the number of total students reached grow even higher than last year by filling in the form on this page.

Offline Coding Lesson Resources:

Did you know that there are ways to teach coding skills even without a computer?  Students can learn important coding concepts such as writing step-by-step directions for others to “code” using hands-on lesson activities such as these. Just click on any of the icons to take you out to the website.

There are tons more online resources you and your students might like to explore. Lisa Highfill gathered a number of them in a hyperdoc. It includes both online resources and iPads apps. And there are still more resources to check out at Code.org, the Scratch website, Tynker Coding for Kids, Code Academy, or Khan Academy

We’re hoping you will want to take the Hour of Code experience even further by integrating computer science into your classroom curriculum. Be sure to ask your site STEAM ToSA about more coding ideas and resources. For example, consider having your class pair up with your buddy class to create a coding project together!  Or, create code programs about Language Arts, Science, Math, and History topics to connect with spheros robots and makeymakey circuit boards!  

And as always, if you have questions or would like some support for hosting Hour of Code, reach out to USD’s STEAM or Tech ToSAs. We’re here to help!