Category: Teaching Tools

Find Famous Quotes in The Google Docs Research Tool

8/20/2015

"The Research tool in Google Docs and Slides is a popular way for students to find, insert and cite information from the web into their work. But did you know that it can also be used to find famous quotes?

If your students are investigating a person or event, a famous quote can add an interesting touch to their work. They’re also excellent discussion prompts. Why not ask students to find and insert a quote into their Doc, then analyse the meaning behind the words.

Here's how to do it:..."

Read more @ Tech Smart@edu

3D Printing Filament That Dissolves in Water

7/14/2015

At Milpitas Unified, we're at the beginning phases of incorporating 3D printing into our learning process. One of 3D printing pain points is the removal of support material. This solves that issue.

Explore more @ Cubify

Microsoft HoloLens: Partner Spotlight with Case Western Reserve University

7/10/2015

Although this is years away for public schools (due to cost), we can't wait to introduce and share this type of technology with our students.

Love the quote from this video:

"Anytime you change the way that you see things, it changes the way that you understand them. As soon as you can change someone's understanding, then they can change the way that they see the world."

Of course, there is the "budget" way of doing this as well:

‘Screen Time’ For Kids Is Probably Fine

6/19/2015

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Screen Time | FiveThirtyEight

A student at Milpitas Unified spends around 30 to 150 minutes a day (depending on grade level, instructional objectives, and other learning/personal factors) with a screen. Here is one person's perspective based on evidence.
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"When I was a kid, my parents had strict television rules: no more than an hour a day, and the content must be educational. This meant a lot of PBS. I did briefly convince my mother that the secret-agent show “MacGyver” was about science, but that boondoggle ended when she watched an episode with me. These restrictions seemed severe at the time, but my parents were just following the orders of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Children and teens should have no more than..."

Read on @ FiveThirtyEight

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Create a YouTube Playlist as a Modern-Day Mixtape

6/8/2015

The mixtape concept can be used for classroom applications to "flip" learning as well as be used in student projects.

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The art of mixtape making has sadly been lost in our transition to a digital era of on-demand music, but there are still places where you can practice this lost skill, and one of them is YouTube. Here are the steps to assemble your group of songs and share them with a special someone or the world at large.

From the YouTube menu (accessible via the menu button near the logo) you can choosePlaylists then New playlist to get started. Give the playlist a name and set its visibility toPublic or Unlisted. You’re now ready to start adding your tracks—on any YouTube video page, choose Add to and then...

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Which Flight Will Get You There Fastest?

4/30/2015

Wonderful infographic if you're planning a trip by air.
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FiveThirtyEight analyzed 6 million flights to figure out which airports, airlines and routes are most likely to get you there on time and which ones will leave you waiting.

Find your fastest route @ FiveThirtyEight

Wolfram Image Identification Project

4/23/2015

Check out the technology at Wolfram's Image identification project. You can drag an image and then it tells you what the image is.

Math for eight-year-olds: graph theory for kids!

4/10/2015

This morning I had the pleasure to be a mathematical guest in my daughter’s third-grade class, full of inquisitive eight- and nine-year-old girls, and we had a wonderful interaction. Following up on my visit last year (math for seven-year-olds), I wanted to explore with them some elementary ideas in graph theory, which I view as mathematically rich, yet accessible to children.

My specific aim was for them to discover on their own the delightful surprise of the Euler characteristic for connected planar graphs.