3 Things from the NVHS LMC (Day after Conferences Edition) - #10

Interesting Articles

An article about scientists who debunk online misinformation as a side hustle is in Wired magazine. On Inc.com's website, find out about The 10 Top Skills That Will Land You High-Paying Jobs by 2020. Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook has a post about ditching annotating PDFs and hyper-annotate instead. Research on how to teach writing is slim, but this Hechinger report  article gives a brief summary of what we know. 

Hey, Google. What's New?

A roundup of some new features in Google products: Add audio files to a Slides presentation. It is working for me, hopefully it does for you too. Create new Docs, Sheets, calendar, and Google Keep notes, Sites, etc. and other things by typing .new after it (e.g. typing docs.new into the browser creates a new Google doc). Recently, Google has opened up this ability to other sites like Spotify, Medium, eBay, Canva and others. In Google Sites, you can add an image carousel (slide show)  and a collapsible text box for a cleaner and more interesting layout.

Library Fines 2.0

All 3 high schools have changed our overdue and fine policies. We used to charge 10 cents a day for overdue books up to the cost of the book. Now, once a book is overdue, students will have 30 days to return it. At the end of that time, the book will be marked as lost and a fee for the cost of the book plus a 3 dollar fine will be added to their PushCoin account. The 3 dollar fine is non-refundable, but the cost of the book is refundable if the book is returned within a year of being marked lost. Of course, we are currently looking at creative ways to help remind the students to return materials on time.  

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #9

A Few Useful American History Resources

Get some digital posters from Smithsonian's Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II exhibit, along with educator materials. The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement is a collection of videos about the civil rights movement and those who were part of it. The project is a collaboration between NBC and the Equal Justice Initiative, the latter of which has some more interesting multimedia projects. Bunk is a history site out of the University of Richmond that makes connections between current and historical events. More information is at NeimanLab.

Rethinking Our Approach to Math

A study from earlier this year explores the role of mindset and learning math. A more recent study discusses how math looks different (or not) in the brains of boys and girls. Two Mindshift articles address methods in the math classroom. Three Simple Tech Tools to Make Math Thinking Visible has a few suggestions of how to use three different tech tools to better be able to see students' thinking. How Revising Math Exams Turns Students Into Learners, Not Processors suggests a new approach for math assessments. 

We are 204: (Don't) Call Me Crazy edited by Kelly Jensen 

This book has essays, lists, comics, and illustrations 33 actors, athletes, writers and other artists about a wide range of personal experiences with mental illness. This volume is written for young adults, so the material is accessible for a range of levels.

3 Things for the NVHS LMC: Leftover Candy Edition (#8)

 Interesting Articles

The New Parental Obsession is from The Wall Street Journal and is about parents checking their kid's grades online. (Password page for Off Campus Access). A look at how teens spend time in their day and the differences between girls and boys is from the Pew Research Center. A study from Brigham Young University says that overall time spent on social media alone does not lead to anxiety and depression in teens. In other words, it's complicated.

Figuring Out Fake News

Bad News is an online game that simulates a fake news campaign. The player tries to get as many followers as possible. Research has shown that the game helps players to "inoculate" against fake news.

We are 204: We Set the Dark on Fire

Medio is a country sharply divided by economic inequality and patriarchal traditions. At the  Medio School for Girls, students are trained to become the wives of rich and powerful men. Each of these men have two wives. One runs his household and the other bears and raises his children. Two girls join the household of one of the most powerful households in the country. The girls will become spies for the resistance movement that is working to take down the rich and powerful. And they will find forbidden love.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #7

VidReader: Create Search Transcripts of YouTube Videos

Put a URL for a YouTube video into VidReader and it will generate a searchable transcript on the fly for you. There are a number of sample videos you can try to see how it works. Click on any words in the transcript and the video will jump to that segment. You can then share the video with the transcript using a link or a number or a number of other sharing services.

Interesting Articles

On the Cult of Pedagogy blog and podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez interviews the host of the We Teach Languages podcast about how teaching world languages has evolved.  While looking for some resources for teaching about fake news, I stumbled across this 2016 NPR story about how to look out for fake news stories. It is a nice summary of a few useful techniques.. The University of Southern California Ed department has a new service called The Answer Lab, where scholars take questions and answer them with a summary of related research and a recommendation for best practice. The first two briefs are up on their website now.

Lincoln Award:  Dear Martin by Nick Stone

Justyce McAllister is an honors student, a senior headed to an Ivy League school, and only one of a few African American students in his classes. He is also a scholarship student trying to escape a rough neighborhood, He learns about the teachings of Martin Luther King from his favorite teacher and he keeps a journal where he writes letters to Dr. King to help make sense of his life. Then, his best friend is shot by an off duty cop while the two friends are out driving and Justyce’s world is turned upside down. Audio Sample of the Book

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #6 -- Google Edition

Google Search Tricks

Are you a Google Search Operator (nod to 80’s era Sade..anyone??) Commonsense Media shows students (and you) how to use a few common search operators to target and refine your web search. When you search for college information in Google, the knowledge panel, also known as the big box on the right side of the first results page, will now have some basic information about admissions, cost, etc. Looking for a podcast about soap carving or competitive dog grooming (we don’t judge) Type in the topic and the word podcast and Google will return a few episodes from podcasts as suggestions. You can even play them in the web browser.

Google Extensions for Your Sanity

If you aren’t familiar with extensions, the short of it is that they are little tools you add to the top right corner of your Chrome web browser that give it superpowers (disclaimer: not really). Here are a few that might help get you through a stressful day. Having too many tabs open in Chrome can be distracting. OneTab allows you to reduce the clutter. Just click the icon and all the tabs get reduced to one and you get a list of links to reopen any of the tabs. Sometimes you need to take a social media or YouTube break, but when it becomes a problem, use StayFocused to block or limit time you spend on certain websites. We’re talking about you, cute kitten videos.

Google Slides’ Side Hustle: Digital Notebooks

Google Slides isn’t only for presentations. Since it gives you the ability to add videos, links, customize the design, resize the slide to your own custom proportions, among other things, it also makes a great digital notebook. The Ditch That Textbook blog has directions and ideas for creating your own digital notebooks in your class.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #5

Too Busy for Time for Time Management

Everyone in the education world knows how valuable time is in their work and life. A new study confirms that people who value time over money are happier (but of course money is great too.) Of course, our students need to know how to maximize their time as well. Lisa Johnson from the Tech Chef blog has a post with resources she used to teach students about time management.

Thanks for the Books, Volume Reading Committee 

The district's Volume Reading Committee has a done something awesome. They have given all of the district LMC's a one time gift of money to purchase books to help add a bunch of new books for our collections. We will be soliciting your feedback in the near future about materials that might support your independent reading assignments.

Lincoln Award: Nyxia

A group of teenagers with troubled pasts have been selected for a mission to a faraway planet where they will help mine an amazing mineral called Nyxia. On the way there, their numbers will dwindle as they face a series of competitions to determine who will be part of the final crew. If they make it all the way, they will receive lifelong financial security for them and their families. But the competition can be deadly and the corporation sponsoring the trip has some secrets they want to keep hidden at any cost.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #4 - Happy Birthday to Dr. Fuhrer Edition

Back to the Basics 

From Edutopia, Fundamentals of Classroom Management is a list of resources aimed at new teachers, but it looks like they have some useful information for any teacher. Also from Edutopia, an article from a few years ago suggests a simple strategy for asking better questions to students. Finally, Jennifer Gonzalez from the Cult of Pedagogy podcast recently did an episode / blog post about what to do you when you want some answers, but you get nothing but crickets in response. 

Google Drive Learns New Tricks

Google Slides and Docs have a few tricks up their virtual sleeves. Say you want to hide a slide during a presentation because you want to temporarily hide an answer. When in presentation mode, press the B key for a black screen, W for a blank white one. You can also set up automatic timings on a Slides presentation and have it loop in  kiosk mode. It might be helpful for student festival or rotation directions during group work. Just click the gear icon at the bottom of the screen when in presentation mode. In Docs, go into the Tools menu and click Word Count. You can display a live word count as you type. Great for typing up announcements or other places where you have a word or character limit.

We are 204: With the Fire on High

Emoni Santiago's life course seems pretty set in stone. She is a high school senior with a toddler to raise and she has to help her grandmother pay the bills. Emoni is such an instinctively good cook that her cooking skills seem like magic, but she thinks her own dream of being a chef will never happen. That is until her school starts a new culinary arts class. Taking the class is one thing, but she will never be able to afford the culinary two week trip to Spain to work in a real professional kitchen. And getting to know the cute new boy that keeps trying to get her attention is definitely off limits. But maybe this is her real chance for a better future for both her and her daughter. Here is the book trailer on YouTube.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #3

Oops! I Forgot to Bring and / or Charge My Chromebook

Just a quick reminder that we have a limited number of Chromebooks for students whose device is being repaired. For that reason, and because of a directive from the CEC, we do nott lend out Chromebooks to kids who forget their device at home. For students who forget to charge their Chromebooks, we have a few chargers on hand for kids to checkout and use in the LMC Unfortunately, because of high demand (and forgetful adolescents), we don’t allow them to leave the room. We do have 12 desktop computers in the LMC. When we distribute the devices or talk to parents, we suggest students develop a habit of putting their bookbag and Chromebook in the same spot every night and make sure to plug it in. A recent NY Times article discussed how to help teenagers remember to bring their stuff to school. Worth a read.

Interesting Articles: Swipe Left or Right on Tech?

There is a scientific debate on teens, screens, and mental health. Mindshift has a nice summary. A new research study says that if you want to take a mental break, then put down the cellphone. Researchers have found a way to tell if students are really just Christmas-treeing a test on a computer. Want to know how many books you could get through in a year if you just quit checking your social media account? Omni Calculator can give you an idea.

Gale PowerSearch: Topic Finder

Are you looking for more information on a current topic? Would you like your students to bring in articles to support your curriculum? Try searching all of our Gale Databases with Power Search . The topic finder also helps you narrow down a search by clicking on other terms related to your search

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #1

Update Those Chromebooks (Please Pass It On)

One of the best things students can do to improve the security of their Chromebook and fix possible problems is to update the operating system. It isn’t hard to do and it takes about 2 minutes (or less). Here is a useful slide that Lance created a while back. Please share it with your students and encourage them to update whenever their computer tells them have a new update.

New LMC Databases from Cengage Gale

We have added Cengage Gale’s U.S. History in Context and World History in Context to our lineup of LMC databases. We have several other databases from the same company, so if you know how to use one of them,  you will figure out the other ones really quickly. Plus, there is a special interface called Gale PowerSearch that allows you to search most of them all at once. All of our Gale databases are integrated with Google, so you can send material to Google Drive or Google Classroom.

New Reading Lists: Lincoln Award & We are 204

Every year, we like to promote the Lincoln Award Nominees list. The list is put together by a committee of high school librarians and high school students from across the state. Last year, we also worked with the other high school LMC Directors to create the first We are 204 list, a districtwide list that promotes titles that reflect the district’s diversity. Both lists have great books for high school students. We will be introducing a title a week, but here are both lists in case you are curious: Lincoln Award / We are 204.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #2

Breaking News: Differentiated Reading for Your Classroom

Newsela is a website that has a library of articles that you can assign to students. Any article can be changed to a variety of reading levels so that you can meet the needs who read at lower or high levels in the same class. Many of the articles also come with a comprehension quiz. Since the district pays for the PRO version, login using the Google button and district account. Their Educator's guide shows you how to do cool stuff like syncing your Google Classroom roster with Newsela so you can assign and track student progress.

Free Stuff Alert!

Why are people always trying to give teachers free stuff? Marketing, I guess. But who cares? It's free stuff! If you are an audiobook fan, Libro.fm gives away a few e-audiobook titles away to educators every month. The meditation and mindfulness app Calm is offering free premium access to educators right now. Download some free  Growth Mindset posters from the We are Teachers website. 

Lincoln Award: Sadie by Courtney Summers

After Sadie's younger sister Mattie is murdered and the police investigation goes nowhere, Sadie decides to take matters into her own hands. She vows to find the killer and take revenge, but she has ended up missing herself.The narrative shifts between Sadie and that of a podcast that is investigating what happened to Sadie and her sister. The publisher created a real podcast to go along with the story too. 

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #20

Silent Study During Finals

The LMC’s in both buildings will be open for silent study next week. Please encourage your students to use our space to get ready for your finals. Just a reminder that we have plenty of comfortable seats and students can borrow Chromebook chargers to plug in while they are here studying.

Interesting Links: Math Edition

TedED has a playlist of animated video lessons called Math in Real Life that has some interesting application of mathematical principles. The EdTechTeam blog has some creative uses for hyperdocs in the math classroom.

Senior Book Program

Every year, the Main LMC offers the parents of senior students to having us purchase one or more books in their child’s honor. Donations by parents go to new nonfiction books for the main LMC. We put a bookplate with the senior’s name in the front of the book. We then send a follow up letter to the families to let them know the title(s) purchased in their son or daughter’s name. As a part of the program, each year we work with the student council to select a quote for brand the campaign. This year’s quote was “A book is a dream you hold in your hands” by Neil Gaiman. This year’s set of books is on display in the Main LMC through next Thursday if you want to come take a look.