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

Michigan Electronic Library has a plethora of resources available to Michigan teachers to support your teaching and student learning.  I would suggest exploring the following: the variety of curriculum resources , categorized by subject area and other topics such as career & college ready skills, Makerspace,  and technology.   flyers to help you educate students on evaluating electronic resources professional development eResources

(Today's blog will wrap up the Classwork section in your Google Classroom.)  Sometimes you want to access materials - including assignments turned in by students - in your Drive instead of in Classroom.  This is possible, but it is really important to understand where this folder is located and NOT DELETE certain parts so that your Classroom can continue to run smoothly. To access your Class Drive Folder: When in your classroom, click on Classwork - Look in the upper right corner for the Class Drive folder, click on it - This will open up your Google Drive into the class folder.  The name of the class will be the final listing within the breadcrumb trail - All resources and assignments shared within the course will be within this folder.  Those that are assignments and students are turning in work will be in a folder.  Resources will be listed at the bottom.  Additionally, there will a Templates folder - this folder contains any of the ite...

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...

At any time you can share resources with your students within Classroom.  This is one of the advantages of using Classroom as what I call a "launching pad" - it can be the one place students go to get to any resources needed for your class, cutting down on transition time and confusion.  Students can always know they can get to the sites and materials by going to Classroom.  Additionally, it can help support students that are absent or looking for extra practice outside of school hours.  And, since it integrates so nicely with your Drive, it can be more efficient for you also. Here is how you add materials (Note: as the options available are the same for adding other items such as assignment they are covered in depth in this post.): Click on Classwork while in your Classroom - Click on Create - Select Material -  There are many options available.  These are available when you create any of the items under "Create" - 1 - Courses to "as...

A new school year brings new opportunities to dig into the content and tools in MeL's eResources. We know it can be a lot of work to roll out a new library resource to students, parents, teachers and school administrators. To help, a range of support resources are available from each of MeL's eResource providers. This month, we're reviewing EBSCO’s knowledge base, EBSCO Connect. With a collection of lesson plans, tutorials, student guides and more, you are sure to find what you need. The best part? They’re free! Here are the Top 5 student and teacher support resources available in EBSCO Connect:   Lesson Plans Are you supporting teachers in your community with library material connections to curriculum? Look for dozens of lesson plans for a variety of subjects. To support students and teachers in high school check out the information literacy lesson plan  Spotting Fake News and Images on the Web . Scavenger Hunts Explore features, discover research top...

Next Gen Personal Finance is a great resource for teachers that are either teaching a Personal Finance course or incorporating personal finance topics into their curriculum The site includes: learning units course mapping - from an 8 hour workshop, to a full semester course resources (including "question of the day," activities and projects)  & case studies professional development and networking opportunities All materials (excluding pictures) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commerical 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC) License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ ).  This means you can share and adapt the content following the terms of use (see note below) without seeking written permission.   "The CC BY-NC License allows you to freely share and adapt CFCI Content, provided that: (i) you give proper attribution to CFCI in the manner specified by CFCI, but not in any way that suggests that CFCI endorse you or ...

Google Calendar provides a way to set your building rooms as resources, which can then make them available to checkout when you are creating an event.  It is important to note that this feature only works if: your organization has enabled it you have an account with permissions to checkout rooms (If either of these settings are not enabled, you will not be able to use this feature. Talk to your Google Administrator if you feel this is in error.) Let's learn how to add a room to an event you are scheduling. (Here is a video on how to assign a room if you prefer.) You will need to click on the More options when creating your event to use this feature -  On the right side, next to Guests it will say Rooms if this feature is being utilized by your organization.  Click on it - This will change the right area to a list of resources that are setup for your organization (this can be items like video conferencing tools, public devices, etc in addition to r...

Brought to you from the team at MeL -  Anyone ordering new materials for their library knows firsthand the annual number of books being published has exploded. Some estimates cite the number at over 1 million! How are we ever supposed to keep up with all of these new titles?   NoveList Plus  and  NoveList K-8 Plus  are two great  eResources  available in  MeL  that can become your secret weapons for finding your, or your patrons', next great reads. A source for expert read-alike recommendations,  NoveList  adds about 30,000 new titles every year. Approximately two-thirds of those are for adults and one-third are for kids. There are over 78,000  audiobook  titles and over 34,000 series titles.   With books for every reader both   NoveList   eResources   offer a wide range of features to help you narrow down your search for a great book.   Recommendations by title, author,...

Supporting Michigan Libraries - November 15, 2018 From Liz Breed of MeL -  We're excited to offer AtoZdatabases, a new eResource in MeL. This powerful tool offers content useful for demographic profiles, business site location studies, traffic studies, proposal/grant writing, mapping a geographic area, conducting city or regional comparisons, research and development, and studying industry segments. Whether you currently offer support to your local business community or you're considering doing so in the future, AtoZdatabases can help enhance and build your efforts. Some of the most common questions small business owners ask can be fielded using AtoZdatabases. How do I find new customers to grow my business? Should I expand my business in this new geographic area? Where can I get a mailing list to promote my new service or products? How can I learn more about my community? I need to secure additional funding. Where can I find information abou...

Information about donations provided by MDE:  Many students and families have been impacted by the wildfires in California. The California Department of Education have offered the following information if you are able to offer donations: Financial donations are urgently needed right now. Individuals or organizations can visit https://www.nvcf.org/fund/ butte-county-schools-fire- relief-fund/  to donate now. The Butte County Office of Education created this Schools Fire Relief Fund to provide a one-stop location where individuals or organizations can provide support. At this link, donors can either specify a specific district or use (such as textbooks, clothes, etc.) for the funds, or make an open donation. Please do not send items (such as clothes, toys, backpacks, etc.) and encourage others not to send these items, unless they are specifically requested. If you are looking for resources to teach about wildfires generally, or to discuss the Camp Fire specifically...