Waffle Bytes

Over 1500 new or updated resources have been added to #GoOpen Michigan! Check out these additions which provide more for every curriculum area - NEW International Astronomical Union (57 resources) - set of activities/lessons bundled under Astro EDU set NEW Code.org (342 resources) - includes lesson plans for CS Discoveries, CS Fundamentals, and CS Principles NEW National Endowment for the Humanities (405 resources) - EDSITEments set with a variety of resources including lessons, activities and readings NEW US Census Bureau (62 resources) - K-12 activities from the Statistics in Schools project UPDATED CK-12 resources (798 resources) - updated flexbook resources

Teachers - check out the US Census Bureau's Statistics in School (SIS) .  A plethora of resources for you - and since it is a .gov site, they are public domain (free to use). Find Activities and Resources A variety of activities searchable by either curriculum area or grade level are provided free on the site.  New activities have been added designed specifically for the 2020 Census.  You and your students can also find: Maps, Data Access Tools, Historical Documents and Images, Constitution Day resources and more.   Seeking Ambassadors Apply to be a teacher ambassador by October 24. Making sure ALL children are counted is especially important for education. 2020 Census responses will drive decisions on how more than $675 billion in federal funds will be distributed each year for the next 10 years to educational programs. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistics in Schools (SIS) is looking for ambassadors in all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samo...

There has never been more information, more readily available, to more students than this moment and it will only continue to increase. Before beginning research with your students consider using some of the resources below to help our students find more useful results when searching for information. Google Advanced Search  (direct link) Google Search Help - Refine Web Searches Better Searches...Better Results  (poster) Google's  Search Literacy Lesson Plans  (lesson plans/activities) A Google A Day Challenges  (activities) Google Search Tips  (infographic/poster) These resources were gathered and are shared by me (Melinda Waffle) and CJ Walker, educational technology colleague at Jackson County ISD.  

Are you a Google Classroom user?  Tynker is hosting a free webinar series to demonstrate how you can easily teach coding with more than 35 coding activities for students.  From the Tynker website - How to Lead an Hour of Code with Google Classroom Join over 200,000 teachers from around the world to celebrate Computer Science and demystify coding. Students have spent more than 600 MILLION hours over the past few years participating in #HourOfCode activities. Have your class join the celebration.  Free Webinar:  Make your hour of code amazing! This year, we’re offering a tailored PD just for teachers who use Google for Education products including Chromebooks, G Suite for Education, and/or Google Classroom.  In this session you will: See how easy it is to teach coding using Tynker and Google tools Preview many of Tynker’s 35+ coding activities for students See how to publish and share student hour of code projects Register Now! When?  ...

From Christine Schneider, MeL K-12 Education Specialist @meldotorg   -  This past week, Detroit Public Television/PBS ( DPTV ) launched a pilot program for a new type of virtual field trip that can be used in the classroom, or by anyone interested in a virtual experience.  The focus included three exciting metro-Detroit locations: the Polk Penguin Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo, the raptor habitat at The Leslie Science & Nature Center in Ann Arbor, and the bat habitat at the Organization for Bat Conservation in Pontiac. The launch was done online via OVEE, which  is a website developed by public media that allows you to watch videos together and chat live with friends, fans and experts in a virtual theater.  429 teachers representing over 13,000 students joined the launch, which took place over 3 days.  These are amazing numbers considering many schools in Southeast Michigan were closed one or two of the days because of the sno...