We are Switching on Learning at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board. We use technology to help facilitate learning. This blog is designed to share ideas, tools, and methodology to use technology to enhance the learning experience.
Looking to help your students improve their online searching skills?
With more and more of the world's content online, it is critical that students understand how to effectively use web search to find quality sources appropriate to their task.
Check out Google A Day Classroom challenges and help your students put their search skills to the test, and to get your classroom engaged and excited about using technology to discover the world around them.
Did you know you can now edit Microsoft Office files in G Suite without converting them from their native format?
This isBIG NEWSfor corporate users that are required to use Microsoft Office but want the flexibility to share and collaborate on files with their colleagues. With Office editing, you can now edit, comment, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This feature brings the collaboration benefits of G Suite to Office files while streamlining workflows by eliminating the need to convert file types.
How to get started:
In Google Drive, double-click your Office file. This will open a preview of the file.
At the top, click Open in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
From here, you can edit, share, view version history, collaborate in real-time with others, and more.
All changes you make will be saved to the original Office file.
Note: If you edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents older than Office 2007, files will be saved to a newer format when editing using Office editing.
Potential Issue:If you have installed the Office compatibility app in Chrome, you may experience issues using this feature. Use the following steps to remove this extension from Chrome if you have it installed:
Click the Chrome menu icon while signed in to your managed Google Account.
Scroll down to More tools.
Click Extensions.
Find the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides extension and click Remove.
The 2019 Global Day of Design will be held on May 6th!
Last year over 100,000 students from four different continents participated in the second annual Global Day of Design.
The hashtag went viral as students and teachers shared and launched their creative projects all day long around the globe. This year, we are doing it again, and we can’t wait to see what students design, build, and make!
Did you know you can use alternate search engines without changing your default search engine?
In the Chrome Browser you can add different search engines and quickly toggle between them by editing the Keywords for them in your search engine list.
Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...
Look for the DuckDuckGo entry and select it
The middle column enter a short and memorable keyword, like du for instance
Click Done to close the modal window
In the Omnibar, you can now just type du + Space on your keyboard to toggle DuckDuckGo. Then, just type a search term and off you go.
If DuckDuckGo does not exist in your list of search engines, you can easily add it.
Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...
Scroll to the bottom of the Other search engines section and look for Add a new search engine
Enter DuckDuckGo for the search engine name, du (or other) for the keyword, and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&t=canonical for the URL
Click Done to close the modal window
Try adding the following new search engines to quickly search from the Omnibar using a short keyword:
The Grade 6 students at Holy Cross were invited to attend an engaging student-led technology exploration session.
The purpose of the session was to demonstrate the variety of technology, coding, and robotics available at the school and how they might incorporate this into their learning.
Mrs. Sloan’s nine Grade 6 students were tasked with providing hands-on support to the other 75 Grade 6 students while promoting a learning environment where students felt comfortable and safe exploring technology.
These students will then complete an inquiry-based learning project around the Flight unit in Science. Students will be encouraged to demonstrate their learning and understanding of the properties of air, the forces of flight, and how flying devices impact society and the environment while incorporating some type of technology (eg. Makey Makey, Scratch coding, Sphero, Ozobots, etc.).
Teachers provided students with curriculum expectations, an opportunity to perform experiments, and guiding questions to direct the final culminating task.
Both those in attendance and the student facilitators benefited from a process of inquiry, collaboration, troubleshooting, and critical thinking. These skills will continue to be honed as students explore these concepts with and without technology.
Check out Alice Keeler's Google Slides Online Course for Teachers to see why she refers to Google Slides as the Swiss Army Knife of G Suite. The video is full of examples of how you can use Google Slides as so much more than just a presentation tool.
Over 100 visual and video writing prompts for grades 6-8. Here’s a one-minute preview video:
One of the best aspects of being a teacher is watching students go from saying, “I hate writing,” to being so passionate about writing that they refuse to stop when the bell rings. In these moments, it can feel like magic. While there are many ways to spark the love of writing, one of my favorite strategies is a video or visual writing prompt. For over a decade, I have been creating authentic, teacher-tested writing prompts to spark the love of writing with even the most reluctant writer.
Right now, you can download a set of 100+ writing prompts (plus 30 video prompts) for free. Simply visit John's original blog post to add your email address he will send you a PowerPoint, Keynote, and PDF with the prompts.
Creative Writing Prompts
Some of the prompts focus on creative writing, like this prompt:
Personal Narrative
Other prompts use creative methods to help students feel safe sharing their story.
Persuasive Prompts
Other posts focus on persuasive techniques
Or this video prompt:
Social-Emotional Learning
Some of the prompts help guide students in self-reflection and social-emotional learning.
Creative Thinking
I also include prompts to spark creative thinking:
Science and Social Studies Integration
Some of the prompts tie into social studies, like this one:
