Beyond Integration

How do you introduce a new unit or any lesson to capture the attention of your students? Do you pose a question? Was it creative and unexpected? Maybe it was a simple review of what they learned in the previous lesson. There is a purpose of hooking your students for that fresh learning and setting the objective for each lesson. It can help activate prior knowledge, set the learning expectations and allow students to make connections between the content and real world. The use of images can be that creative and unexpected way to capture your student’s attention with the anticipation of new learning. Strategy 1 - Half the picture Locate an image that shows a big idea of the unit or lesson. Make a copy of the image in order to edit using a photo editing tool to cover half of the picture. Display the image that only shows ½ of the picture. Using the 3-2-1 strategy, a great AVID strategy, have students organize their thoughts about what they think is happening in the picture. ...

Where are the good digital citizens? They show up to our classrooms everyday! This affords us the opportunity to develop positive digital characteristics that will follow our students beyond the classroom. As we recognize Digital Citizenship Week on October 14-18, 2019, think of some ways that the conversation can go beyond the week. Below, we have shared some ways that teachers can naturally implement digital citizenship so that it becomes a part of the everyday classroom. Exploring Citations Media Literacy is a major part of digital citizenship in regard to resources provided by others. When conducting online searches, encourage students to use the Explore tool to search the web within Google Docs and Google Slides. This feature generates a citation in the footnote on the page. There is also an option to change the format of the citation to MLA, APA, or Chicago. Guiding students to utilize this tool shows them that a good digital citizen gives credit for others' work...