For those who participated in the Breakout EDU at R2R camp, here is something further to checkout.  Breakout EDU is excited to announce 600 NEW curriculum-aligned games for the Breakout EDU Platform! You will find digital games for all covered standards and capstone games to review each unit. 

These games are a great addition to the growing library of hundreds of K-12 games already available.  If you are interested in learning more about Breakout EDU, send me an email so I can connect you with someone in your building who is familiar with it. Click one of the content links below to see what is available.
math, science, social studies, ELA

LearnStorm is Khan Academy’s free, Fall program that gives teachers a fun way to help students gain skills, foster growth mindsets, and build teamwork.  A video is attached showing LearnStorm celebrations. LearnStorm Link.  

As part of this LearnStorm program, professional development for teachers is included along with activities for elementary, middle and high school.  Sign in to Kahn Academy and check it out. If you aren't a member of Kahn Academy, sign up is free.

This was an app shared by Monica Burns called Sir Dapp Game Show.  Through fun play the app teachers CASEL Social Emotional Learning Skills.  These skills cover Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. Check out this link to the PDF that outlines the Social Emotional curriculum benchmarks.  The app is $2.99 and would be a good one for parents to purchase for home use with their child.

Okay here we are in the 2019-2020 school year.  I have shared lots of information in this blog since 2015 and there continues to be more information to share every day.  I know that many of you have great tips, tricks and resources you use with your students and I would love to share those with all staff so that we can all continue to learn together.    Please feel free to share a resource, a tip or trick and it can be in the form of a short summary or a quick video that I will publish.  If you just send me the link to check it out I can explore it and write the summary or create the video to share.  Also, I am looking for showcases of teachers using the technology or having their students use the technology.  Feel free to send me a picture and a brief writeup to feature you and your students as we continue down this Road to Relevance.  This blog is published weekly all year long.

Greg Weikert shared a tip below about the installation of iPads apps and commands. 

​This is just an informational FYI about Mosyle and iPad Apps.. For the iPad apps and Commands to install the ipad must be 
1.) ON a Home or School WiFi
2.) Unlocked at all times
​
A couple of students said to Greg that their ipads were at home connected but not getting apps. They did say the iPad was locked. So keep in mind it must be on and unlocked.

In the last blog I shared a bit about the new priority option you may have seen in your Google Drive.  Emily Kress has created a screencast to explain it further.  I personally have used the feature and I really like how convenient it makes accessing those frequently used files.  Thanks for sharing Emily.

Jen Shearer, Pam Adams and I attended a RIDES training at Penn Dot in Harrisburg on July 22nd, and 23rd.  RIDES is an acronym for Roadways into Developing Elementary Students.  The goal is to incorporate STEM into the elementary and middle grades.  The three of us participated in a variety of STEM activities and each received a kit of STEM related materials and resources along with the lessons.  The activities we participated in cross many content areas.  In addition, we learned about some resources that are free that may be of interest to you.  One particular resources can be used K-12 by ELA, science, social studies, art, and math teachers.  It is TED Ed. Check out the link provided to see lots of already designed lessons to connect to your content and engage your students.  The lessons are short and include a Watch (video), Think, Dig Deeper, and Discuss activities. They would be perfect to introduce a new topic or  a supplement to a topic to help students make meaning of it.  It's a great free resource.    

One of the participants shared this Youtube video called Scale of the Universe.  It shows everything in the universe of a scale of big to small. 

Another participant shared that Youtube has Science Wars videos.  These videos are about science but presented through music.  Click here to be directed to a list of them but you can go to Youtube and just put Science Wars in your search to see them too. 

Another resource that was shared is called Think like a scientist.  You can Google it or go to this link where you will see the site called Lesson Planet.  It covers all grade levels and just about all content areas.  It is not a free site but you can get a trial and the site is really inexpensive.  There are 3 plans to choose from.  Check out the trial version to see if there are resources for you to use.  

The technology department tracks all of their tech tickets so they have a process they are reminding everyone of and sharing with new staff.  When submitting Tech tickets, please do the following:

First Step: Who do I email?  
Answer: CVTDhelpdesk@cvcolonials.org or CVSDhelpdesk@cvcolonials.org

Second Step: How does the Tech Specialist know where I am and my issue?
Answer: In the subject line state your Building then Room Number after that a hyphen and then a small description of the issue/question or concern.

Third Step: How can I go into further detail?
Answer: Now you can use the body of the email to give further details of your Issue/Question/Concern.

That's everything, you will then get emails, for your ticket when a Tech Specialist is assigned to your ticket or when the ticket is closed with a resolution described.

Note: Sometimes a question will be asked in the ticket system for you to reply to .. All you have to do is reply to the email and the rest will be attached to the ticket.

EXAMPLE:

I follow various blogs and I am sharing this entry I just saw on his blog on August 13th.   If you are a Donors Choose user this may be of interest to you.  Read what Bill wrote below.

I’ll boost your donation
By Bill Gates
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: the 2019 Washington Teacher of the Year taught me how to butcher a chicken.

Robert Hand teaches family and consumer science—what we would’ve called “home economics” when I was in school. In other words, he helps his students learn how to take care of themselves after high school, including how to make a nutritious and delicious homemade meal. You can read more about him on my blog here.
Robert is exceptional, but even the best teachers I’ve met struggle with one thing: getting the resources they need in the classroom. That’s why I’m partnering with DonorsChoose.org to support teachers around the country as they prepare to go back to school.
​
Starting today at 7 a.m. ET, when you donate to the classroom project of your choice, I’ll give your donation an extra 50 percent boost. That means that, if you give $20, our foundation will chip in an extra $10.
I encourage you to support amazing teachers like Robert Hand through DonorsChoose.org.

Thanks for being an Insider!
Bill

You may see that on your Google drive you now have a new option called priority. The files on the Priority page represent Google's best attempt to serve as a smart assistant.  Priority shows files that Google's system rates as relevant for recent or upcoming work, such as: Files you've opened or edited recently, files shared with you that someone else edited, or files that might be related to an upcoming meeting.

The way it works is when you click on priority you will see recently opened files to your right.  Below these files you will see the option to create a workspace.  When you click create a workspace you name it and then you can choose files that you want to add.