Time to Celebrate!

Chinese New Year (starts Feb. 16):  Year of the Dog
In the last year, people have drawn more than 3 million doodles of dogs in Quick, Draw!—a fun game that uses neural networks to try to recognize your drawings. In honor of Lunar New Year, the Google team snuck in a special version of Quick, Draw! with dog related items. Put your doodling skills to the test.

President’s Day (Feb. 19):  American Democracy
Via Google Arts and Culture, learn about past presidents, take a closer look at life in the White House, read about White House pets, learn Secret Service codes, and learn more about the First Ladies.  You’re also invited to take virtual tours of some of the most iconic presidential homes in 360°

Black History Month (February):  Black History and Culture
Via Google Arts and Culture, discover thousands of artworks, artifacts and stories from cultural organizations across the United States.  Learn about inspirational figures, remember iconic black women, learn more about activism and civil rights, explore black history and culture through time, watch defining moments in civil rights history, take virtual tours of key sites of the civil rights movement, and much, much more!

Black History Month (February):  National Museum of African American History & Culture
The newest Smithsonian Museum and among the most popular, visit the museum website to read the collection of stories, explore the collections, view the exhibits, and more!!  It’s an incredible museum!

Ozobot Lesson:  Dorothy Vaughan and Fortan
This lesson aims to inspire students of all backgrounds to explore worlds they never considered by reading about an inspiring leader in STEM, Dorothy Vaughan. She was an African American woman at NACA (NASA) in the racially segregated 1950s and taught herself and her colleagues to program computers. Students will also explore the early programming language FORTRAN (now written as Fortran) that Dorothy learned, which will give students further insight into the uses for, and power of, math formulas and algebra, especially as they are used for engineering.

Dr. Seuss Day (March 2):  Resource Website
This is a simple website I created to share a collection of Dr. Seuss resources.  You’ll find links to five Dr. Seuss read-along stories, links to informational sites, and links to fun, Dr. Seuss activities sites. 

Dr. Seuss Day (March 2):  Dr. Seuss Slides Presentation with information and activities for students (by the HyperDoc Girls)

 Women’s History Month (March):  31 Days of Amazing Women (by USA Today)

 Women’s History Month (March):  Lessons, Activities, Background Reading and more! (NEA)

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Integrate: Teaching Students to Spot “Fake News”

Here’s a great way to help students learn about “fake news” on the internet and cross checking facts.  Check it out~

First, go to https://www.allaboutexplorers.com/webquest/teacher/ for the teacher instructions and lesson plan.  It was developed by the Centennial School District to teach Internet literacy skills to 5th grade students (although 4th grade and middle school students would find it helpful too!).  Students are asked to research explorers as they prepare to give a recommendation for a new state holiday.  It’s designed to be a long project, but it could definitely be adapted for a shorter project or even a one-period lesson.  Students are asked to find information on this site (which looks so “real”!) and then compare it to other (reliable) provided sites.

Students will start at the homepage:  www.allaboutexplorers.com

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BrainPop and Newsela Are Teaming Up!  Join the FREE Webinar on Sept. 27

BrainPop (great content that is part of our Ed1Stop package) and Newsela (an amazing free site that offers leveled news articles for classrooms) have joined forces!  Sign up to attend this  free Webinar to learn more about both services on Sept. 27 at 3:30pm (PST).  This is optional!

Click to view other upcoming BrainPop/BrainPop, Jr Webinars or click here to view recordings of past BrainPop webinars.

You can also become a Certified BrainPop Educator!

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