Newsy, Apple Teacher, and more!

Fall is in the air! Hope you survived the week full of sugared up kids! 

I got to spend Monday morning at the Newsy headquarters learning about their operation and some great tie-ins to media literacy instruction. I added the Newsy app to Self Service. Check it out. 

Have you tried...

• Newsy? This news platform started in Columbia (and is still headquartered here even though it's big-time now) and is a video news network that produces short-form video news pieces. They focus on "second tier" reporting to explain the why and get different perspectives about the stories. Grades 4 and up.
• Apple Teacher? It's a program created by Apple for teachers to learn how to use Apple apps in their instruction. Materials are presented through interactive iBooks. Visit appleteacher.apple.com, sign in, and start earning your badges for free. For all teachers.
• Poly? It's a new 3D object library created by Google. Visit poly.google.com to search for and download 3D objects. Grades 4 and up

Cool things happening in my classrooms (and can also happen in yours)...

• Erin Thompson and Michele Winter have continued their stellar work with flipped instruction and self-paced learning powered by Schoology's student completion rules. If you are interested in trying this strategy for an upcoming unit, just let me know.
• Lemetria Pegg's students are wrapping up their Sparta vs. Greece iMovie projects. I had a good time refreshing their memories on iMovie and turning in projects to Schoology.

Building your digital PLN...

• CPSSteamBus, @CPSSteamBus - check out what's happening with Craig Adams' STEAM Bus. It's such a great resource for our students!
• Kelly Schaffer, @MsSchaffer - if you've been around Smithton in recent years, Kelly is no surprise. She shares great ideas to implement in your reading and social studies classrooms.

Tech updates that might interest you...

• The BrightBytes survey is open. You are probably already getting emails about it. This data comes back to buildings to help determine what's going well, and what needs to be improved.
• At some point at the end of next week, there will be a new button in the "materials" area of your Schoology courses and resources. It'll say "Add Assessment". This feature includes the new question types from Schoology, but it's very much still in beta form. It currently does not work on tablets or on laptops that have tablet mode. So unless you are creating an assessment that you want students to complete on a laptop or desktop, you can avoid this option for now. Continue to use the regular "Add Test/Quiz" option. Hopefully it will be available on tablets soon...

Have a great weekend!