Knowing what the expectations are in an online classroom isn’t always easy. We are all familiar with the face-to-face classroom, but what are kids supposed to do in an online classroom? We offer this one-page printable document outlining the expectations for students in our online classrooms.
The 2019-2020 school year changed the moment Premier Jason Kenney suspended classes on the 15th of March. From that point on, teachers were thrust into the position of Distributed Learning Teacher.
What occurred during the week between the announcement of the suspension of classes and the start of online classes was an astounding display of “can-do” from our teachers around Chinook’s Edge School Division.
The philosophy of Life-Long-Learning was displayed in spades throughout Chinook’s Edge. The result of this has been the creation of a number of classroom websites, and online friendly resources. This page is a celebration of the learning that was undertaken by the professionals in our school district. Your commitment to education, to your students and to your professional calling kept learning moving forward.
This page will contain a gallery of the class sites and other online resources created by our esteemed educators to keep learning moving forward. The more we share, the lighter the load! Please share your resources here!!!
Another site with thousands of royalty-free images that you can use for anything in your classroom without the worry of violating copyright law is Free Images. As with the other royalty-free resources we have blogged about here, you do not need to pay for any of the images on this site.
In this blog, we have previously referenced the image editor that Shopify offers for free. Today, we are looking at the bank of royalty-free images they provide through their image bank called Burst. In this set of free images you will find many images, all of which you are free to use for any classroom purpose!
Another source of royalty-free images that is available for free use is unsplash. They boast a large library of high-resolution images that are free for use in anything you create.
Another site for royalty-free (copyright free) images is pexels. There is no subscription needed to acquire images that you can use in worksheet creation, website development and other classroom uses.
As educators, it is important that we model good digital citizenship to our students. One of the ways we do this is by using images that are free from copyright. Pixabay is an excellent site filled with free photos and images to use for any of your classroom needs. The images you can find here are, for the most part, better than the images that you will find on a Google search with the “filtered for reuse” filter applied.
This edition of Ed Tech Tips, Tricks & Hacks contains nuggets of wisdom on:
Common Sense Media, a leader in vetting internet resources for young people has a mental health segment in their vast collection of resources. Amongst the topics covered are kids and screen time, addiction, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. The focus is on keeping media and technology usage healthy and positive.
Common Sense Media, a leader in quality internet information for young people has launched a service to assist during the Covid-19 quarantine. Wide Open School has a lengthy list of activities and resources for teachers to access. It is important to check the privacy policy of these identified resources prior to enrolling students, but many of the resources don’t involve student logins, and therefore can be used without hesitation.
Another PBS offering is Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. This website uses videos, music, games and characters to teach young learners about healthy eating. There are even recipes on the site.
Students do not log in to the site, so privacy is not a concern.
Created by PBS, Arthur Family Health uses the familiar children’s books to teach health-related content to young learners. The site offers games, videos and resources designed to keep families safe and strong. Topics include asthma, peanut allergy, nutrition, resilience and fitness.
Students do not actually log into the site, so privacy is not a concern.
Explain Everything is an online interactive whiteboard for remote collaboration. According to their website “Teach, present, sketchnote, create videos, and work together, all in Explain Everything – the complete online and mobile whiteboard app.”
Their free service for teachers allows for:
They do not collect any data from students.
AWW – A Web Whiteboard is a website that offers a touch-friendly drawing and annotation tool. Their free service includes a basic whiteboard, board sharing, and basic chat. You have the ability to download your board as a .pdf at the conclusion of your usage of theier tool.
They do have paid packages, but their free service may be a powerful tool during this covid quarantine.
As there is no need to sign in to use the service, privacy is not a concern as they are collecting no data in that regard.
Dyson, yes, Dyson who manufactures vacuums, has put together 44 engineering challenges for young people to undertake during this time of quarantine.
Designers from the James Dyson Foundation have come up with a series of challenges to help kids learn at home during isolation.
Comprised of 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, the Challenge Cards can be completed by children using common household items such as eggs, string and balloons.
