Seesaw

Are you interested in an online resource that has already made lessons and will align with the standards? Look no further! Seesaw is perfect for you!

Seesaw is an interactive online platform in which you can assign work and the students can answer directly on their devices. It works for Ipads and Chromebooks and is easy to use for teachers. Seesaw offers standards-based lessons in PK-5 and a community library in grades PK-12. 

My background is in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, therefore I have not had much experience with Ipads. However last year I began teaching STEAM! I found that there were very few programs that easily transitioned from Ipads to Chromebooks, except SEESAW!! Access multiple free lessons or pay for a subscription to access all the lessons. 

All you have to do as the teacher is create a FREE account and connect your students. Not sure how? Click Here to access a step-by-step tutorial. 

 Asynchronous Activity Ideas

Need asynchronous activity ideas for homework or an Asynchronous school day? If so, read on.

Examples of asynchronous learning activities:

• Watching pre-recorded lecture videos or lessons
• Viewing video demonstrations
• Reading and writing assignments
• Student presentations 
• Learning activities such as quizzes, problem-solving, and/or games

Some great asynchronous activity options in our district are:

• Discovery Education Student-Led Quiz (Video or Standard Quiz)
• Pear Deck Student-Paced Activity
• Google Form with a video & Mote (if needed)
• Flipgrid
• Edpuzzle (put in an Internal Service Request to have any YouTube videos unblocked- need to provide the YouTube URL)
• Quizziz Student-Paced Activity
• Kahoot! Self-Paced Game
• INFOhio BookFlix & Highlights Library- BookFlix is paired F & NF texts and Highlights Library is leveled books (ideal for PreK-2)
• INFOhio Storia: Ohio's eBook Collections for Grades 3-6
• TeacherMade Digital Worksheet (Free Version)
• Seesaw Activity (Free Version)
• Nearpod Student Paced Activity (Silver/Free Version)

If you would like help getting started on any of these platforms, or help creating asynchronous activities, email Tiffaney Trella, Rachel Carter, or Andrea Lewinsky from YCSD Tech Integration and we will be happy to help!

Do you have any other great asynchronous activity ideas? Please share them in the comments below. 

Resource Roundup: April is National Poetry Month

Resource Roundup: 

April is National Poetry Month

Poets.org National Poetry Month Resources

Here are 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month at Home or Online. Here are 30 ways to celebrate in the virtual classroom. You can also sign up to receive a Poem a Day in your email inbox. 

K-12 Poetry Lesson Ideas from ReadWriteThink

Choose from Lesson Plans, Student Interactives, and/or Mobile Apps to plan activities to celebrate National Poetry Month. 

Discovery Education Poetry Channel

Log in with your district Google account to view lesson starters, videos, video segments, images, reading passages, and activities by grade band (K-12) for teaching poetry. 

Poetry Activities on Seesaw

Choose a Poetry activity on Seesaw to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Pear Deck & PBS News Hour: Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem "The Hill We Climb"

This Pear Deck is geared towards middle and high school scholars and covers Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" and another poem "The Miracle of Morning."

Easter Magnetic Poetry

Click for an awesome Easter Magnetic Poetry template made by Edutech for Teachers. 

Eric Curts' Great Googley Poetry Projects

Eric Curts has created some awesome poetry resources. Included in this link are resources for magnetic poetry, random poetry writing prompt generator, emoji poetry, poetry templates, and blackout poetry (in Google Docs).

Poem Portraits

Google Arts & Culture and Es Devlin have created an AI and human collaboration where you can donate a word to an evolving collective poem. You then have the option to take a picture of yourself or have it create an image for you. Your poem snippet (based on the word you donated) will be at the bottom of the picture.  

30 Ideas to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Here are thirty easy ideas for how to celebrate National Poetry Month. Choose one or choose one for each day of April. 

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poem Farm

The Poem Farm is a site chock full of poems and ideas for teaching poetry. 

TED-Ed's There's a Poem for That: Season 1

There's a Poem for That is a TED-Ed YouTube playlist of videos that pair contemporary &/or classical poems with animation. There are some other great poems if you search the TED-Ed YouTube channel.

Poetry Foundation Educator Resources

The Poetry Foundation has articles, Poem Guides, and videos to help you teach about poems and poetry. 

7 Free Poetry Resources

Here are seven free printable activities for folks who are in person, Hybrid, or HyFlex. Just know that you will need to make the printable activities interactive for any scholars who are remote learning. TeacherMade seems like a perfect tool to make these resources interactive.

Do you have any great Poetry resources? If so, please share in the comments below. 

 Resource Roundup: Women's History Resources

Can You Guess Who It Is? Google Slides Template by SlidesMania

SlidesMania has two "Can You Guess Who It Is?" templates that would work great for younger scholars creating a collaborative Women's History Slides deck. Here is the pink version and here is the blue/green version.

Women's History Resources from BrainPOP

Women's History videos, activities, and quizzes you can assign in BrainPOP. YCSD teachers, please remember to sign in through Clever. 

25 Women's History Month Ideas for School

A list of 25 ideas for celebrating Women's History Month. Bulletin board ideas may not work for remote learning- but you could make an appropriate virtual background. 

Honor Women's History Month on Flipgrid

Women's History topics from the Discovery Library and Virtual Field Trip activities. Or you can have scholars use Flipgrid to report out on an individual or an event from women's history.

Out-of-This-World Women by Pear Deck 

Pear Deck has Elementary, Middle School, and High School Slides on women that influenced space exploration and include videos and interactive Pear Deck activities. 

Pear Deck Women's History Resources

Pear Deck has six decks about women of note including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cicely Tyson, Kamala Harris and others. 

Women's History Activities on Seesaw

Women's History activities from the Seesaw Community Activity Library. Or you can create your own Seesaw activity using other resources from this post. 

Discovery Education: Women in History

Discovery Education has curated this channel filled with videos and instructional activities about women in history. Videos/activities are divided by grade levels. 

National Women's History Museum Digital Classroom Resources

Digital classroom resources including videos, posters, infographics, lesson plans, timelines, quizzes, and primary sources for grades K-12+. There are more resources as grades increase, but the "Who do I admire?" lesson seems like it would adapt well to remote learning. 

Women's History Resources from the ADL

The Anti-Defamation League provides lesson plans on Women's History topics with an anti-bias emphasis. Lessons may need to be adjusted for remote learning. For example, the Mo'Ne Davis lesson has scholars sharing ideas with Post-it notes. Google Jamboard or a collaborative Google Slides deck would be a great substitution. If you would like help with tech substitutions, please reach out to the YCSD Technology Integration team- we would love to help.

Women's History Month Lessons from the Center for Civic Education

Lesson plans and resources about Women's History. Remote teaching will require some activities to be adapted to digital formats. Note: Even though there is a "Share to Google Classroom" button, it will only share the lesson plan. 

NEH EDSITEment's Women's History Resources

The National Endowment for the Humanities provides a Teacher's Guide with media resources, lesson plans, and student activities. Although the literary lesson plans seem to be geared towards high school, the student activities would adapt well to most grade levels. For example, creating a digital timeline of women in history or creating a film or presentation about a woman in history. Apple Clips would be great for this. 

ReadWriteThink Lessons on Women's History

ReadWriteThink has Women's History lesson plans for grades 3-12.

Women's History Month Resources from ScienceNetLink

Women's History Month resources with a scientific focus. Although there are some resources for K-5, there are many more for grades 6-12.

Women's History Teaching Materials from the Zinn Education Project

Women's History teaching materials and activities for grades 3-12 although they may need to be adapted for remote learning. 

Do you have any great Women's History resources? If so, please share in the comments below.

 Resource Roundup: Black History Month Resources

Google Arts & Culture Resources

Google Arts & Culture has a wealth of Black History resources including historical, video, and artistic resources to help teach about Black History.

Pear Deck Resources

Pear Deck has downloadable Pear Decks for Misty Copeland (ballerina), Amanda Gorman (poet laureate) as well as a pop culture & arts Pear Deck. There are also a variety of relevant Newsela Pear Decks available. 

Seesaw Resources

Seesaw shares 30 interactive Black History Month activities, but feel free to search the Seesaw Community Activity Library for more activities. I especially like this activity that has scholars create a video reaction to BHM read alouds (all read alouds have been unblocked). 

20 Resources from PBS

PBS curates 20 resources (most including lesson plans) that address subjects in Black History from the Civil Rights era to recent history.

33 Resources from We Are Teachers

We Are Teachers shares 33 resources for Black History Month activities. Granted not all will work for Remote Learning (door decorating), but I am loving the idea of a Living Museum using the Spotlight feature in Zoom. 

Science BHM Resources from ScienceNetLinks

Science lessons from ScienceNetLink that are interesting, but not most resources are geared towards 6th grade and beyond.

BHM Resources from Facing History and Ourselves

Teaching ideas, history video lessons, and webinar opportunities for teachers interested in teaching about Black History.

Celebrating Black History with Discovery Education

Discovery Education has many Black History resources, videos, activities and images. Just log in with your district Google account.

African American Experiences

Discovery Education has numerous video and activity resources relating to the African American experience as it relates to History, Culture, and Politics. Log in with your district Google account.

Do you have other resources for Black History Month? If so, please share them in the comments below.