Educational Technology at IU13

Here are some "Timely & Relevant" resources from Discovery Education for the month of January 2024. Use Discovery Education as your daily hub of resources for your classroom with digital media and ready-to-use learning activities. Be sure to log into your instance of Discovery Education before clicking on the links in this post.

Timely and Relevant Resources

• Check out the January 2024 DE Newsletter for a list of resources that supports student learning throughout the summer.  Click on the link above or the image to open and download this month's newsletter.

Explore the Ready-to-Use-Activities

• Explore DE's ready-to-use activities These time-saving activities can be used as-is or modified to meet the needs of their classroom! From Background Builders to Sentence Fix-Its to Choice Boards and more – teachers can find quick grab and go resources to use anytime in the Instructional Activities Channel.

• There you’ll find this month's Activity Calendars for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5. Use them as they are or make your own copy to edit and share.

Monthly & Timely Celebrations

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day (1/16):  Find videos, resources and ready-to-go learning activities to help your students 'meet' Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a pastor who led and inspired others to demand equal rights. Dr. King advocated for peaceful resistance to unfair laws, such as boycotting buses that forced Black Americans to ride separately and leading a march to Washington, D.C., to call for jobs and freedom for all. 
• Penguin Awareness Day (1/20): Put on your tuxedo and celebrate the world's favorite flightless bird. Investigate the different shapes and sizes of penguins around the world, explore their habitats, and see how penguins glide through the water just like other birds fly through the air.
• International Holocaust Remembrance Day (1/27): USC Shoah Foundation is dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action. Explore The Willesden Project and learn about the impact of a powerful narrative that we hold within ourselves the power to overcome hatred.

Explore New York City in Virtual Reality 

• Coming on January 10th for Grades 6-12 | Edge at Hudson Yards | Virtual Reality 3D Virtual Field Trip 
  • Discover the out-of-this-world views of Edge at Hudson Yards in Reach for the Sky VR, a one-of-a-kind environment with an immersive virtual reality experience. In this new immersive experience, students can control their journey and interact with their environment as they explore learning hotspots, visit a weather observation station, and take flight with a drone through the NYC skyline!

District & School Communications

• Use these Subject-Specific and Grade-Specific PDFs from Discovery Education (like the Social Studies one pictured below) in staff newsletters, emails, and social media posts to engage teachers with useful tips, content ideas, and instructional strategies.
• Subject-Specific - Science, Math, Social Studies, ELA, PE & Health and Visual & Performing Arts
• Grade-Specific - Elementary and Secondary

Information compiled in this update was provided by our partners at Discovery Education

The monthly BrainPOP Bulletin is designed to provide inspiration for your classroom. Each month's bulletin has fresh instructional ideas, classroom swag, and community announcements for classroom teachers. 

This Month's Question - How can multilingual learners get extra support?

The Frayer Model for multilingual learners 

• Give your multilingual learners the support they need with this simple, time-saving strategy. In this month’s tip, we’re combining BrainPOP’s Make-a-Map tool with the Frayer Model to explore how to build academic vocabulary and provide flexibility.  View the video in the monthly bulletin to learn how!

Bonus Tip!

• Make-a-Map projects can be printed or saved in student accounts, so your learners can always return to their models when they need them. Log into BrainPop to try it out!

Also in this month's Bulletin...

• Watch Tim & Moby answer the question - "What is #TeacherMath?" 

Best Sora Updates of 2023

• Sora has published what they believe to be their six most impactful updates of 2023. They are: 
  1. Premium Reviews in Marketplace
  2. New Languages in Sora
  3. Student Dashboard Updates
  4. Shelf Talkers
  5. Metered Access Manager
  6. Sora Notifications
• Check out their recent blog post - Cheers to the 6 best product updates of 2023! - to learn more about these updates.

The monthly BrainPOP Bulletin is designed to provide inspiration for your classroom. Every month, their bulletin will have fresh instructional ideas, classroom swag, and community announcements for classroom teachers. 

This Month's Question - How can your Teacher Reports drive more targeted instruction?

Inform reteaching with data -

The teacher dashboard is the secret ingredient to your students’ success. Watch this month’s tip to learn how to use your data to pinpoint opportunities for more targeted, just-in-time instruction in one simple scan.

Try it today!

After assigning a Quiz, check the results in your Teacher Reports. You’ll be able to find trouble spots for students. Once you know those, finding which moments to reteach and return to in the Movie are a lot clearer. 

Also in this month's Bulletin...

Watch "Behind the BrainPOP Scenes" to meet the voice of Annie, and be sure to download free BrainPOP swag to have a big, orange robot to brighten up your classroom.

Here are some "Timely & Relevant" resources from Discovery Education for the month of December 2023. Use Discovery Education as your daily hub of resources for your classroom with digital media and ready-to-use learning activities. Be sure to log into your instance of Discovery Education before clicking on the links in this post.

Timely and Relevant Resources

• Check out the December 2023 DE Newsletter for a list of resources that supports student learning throughout the summer.  Click on the link above or the image to open and download this month's newsletter.

Explore the Ready-to-Use-Activities

• Explore DE's ready-to-use activities These time-saving activities can be used as-is or modified to meet the needs of their classroom! From Background Builders to Sentence Fix-Its to Choice Boards and more – teachers can find quick grab and go resources to use anytime in the Instructional Activities Channel.

• There you’ll find past month's Activity Calendars and this December's Activity Calendars for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5 (coming soon, hopefully). Use them as they are or make your own copy to edit and share.

Monthly & Timely Celebrations

• Winter Holiday Celebrations - Celebrations include a Celebrations of Light Around the World Studio Board (Grades 3-8), Sentence Fix-It: December Holidays (Grades K-2) – capitalization rules for the beginning of sentences & proper nouns, and Grades K-12 DE Channels of resources for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. 

• Holiday Breaks - If you're looking for resources for your students to do at home over the holiday breaks. Share these activities with your families to keep learning alive over break.
• Pearl Harbor (12/7) - Explore the events surrounding the Battle of Pearl Harbor and the loss of more than 2,000 lives on December 7, 1941 and focuses on a select group of United States military personnel and civilians that countered the Japanese attack, such as Doris Miller, Donald Ross, and Julio De Castro.
• First Day of Winter (12/21) - Discover a collection of videos, images, songs, and writing prompts that explore the science behind the seasons and their environmental effects.

Celebrate December With Some of DE's Favorite Virtual Field Trips!

• Need easy-to-use learning resources to keep December busy and fun? Use these Virtual Field Trips to let students play with polar bears, visit a genomics lab, explore cutting-edge technology, and more—all without leaving the classroom! Virtual Field Trips are available on-demand and come with a companion guide packed with standards-aligned, hands-on learning activities that are ready to use!

Information compiled in this update was provided by our partners at Discovery Education