Fake News

In recent weeks there's been more and more attention draw to news and fake news.  I recently ready two different article on the fake news topic.  The first was about outsmarting fake news in news feeds (like on Facebook). This article has some tips ad trick to spotting fake news.

The second was out of Macedonia, where a teenage shares what he knows about fake news with AP as an insider.

 

So how do you spot fake news?  Here's a few things to keep in mind before you click on that every so interesting headline:

1. If is sounds to good to be true it probably is (wise old saying but still applicable)
2. Even real news sites (like CNN) have fake stories
3. Do you know the person who posted it or is it an ad?
4. Snopes, do a quick search for the headline on Snope.com and see if it's a real story or not.

Do you have tips and tricks on how you determine if news is real or fake? I'd love to hear about them.

BrainPOP time Zone X

 

Did you know that BrainPOP offers learning games?  Students and play and submit them electronically to you.  Once submitted you can see a students' level of understanding. Time Zone X is one of these learning games.  It is a timeline game about historical themes such as:

• The American Revolution
• Mars
• Impressionism
• Jazz
• Civil War
• Egyptian Pharaohs
• Roman Republic
• Athens
• New Deal
• and many more

Time Zone X is ideal for grade 3 and up.

Don't forget that you all have teacher accounts and your students all have their own logins! How are you using BrainPOP?

BrainPop Sortify

 

Did you know that BrainPOP offers learning games?  Students and play and submit them electronically to you.  Once submitted you can see a students' level of understanding.  Continents is one of these learning games.  It has topics such as: 

• Parts of Speech
• Nouns
• Current Electricity
• Musical Instruments
• Natural Resources
• Continents and Oceans
• American Indian History
• Multiplication
• Angles
• US Constitution
• American Revolution
• Elements of the Periodic Table
• Nutrition
• Space Exploration
• World-Changing Women
• Dinosaurs
• Median, Mode, Mean and Range
• Factoring
• Similar Figures
• Rounding
• Ocean Life

Don't forget that you all have teacher at my school have accounts and your students all have their own logins!

MassCue 2016

I first heard about MassCUE last September but at that time I was brand new to my school and to Ed Tech here in America.  I was longing for Learning 2 and sad that it did not exist here in the States.  I attended the iPad Summit here in Boston last November and hear Guy Kawasaki speak and learned about Canva from him.  I also learned about Explain Everything from Reshan Richards and fell in love with it. So I had high expectations that MassCUE would have similar amazing learning opportunities for me.  Though I did enjoy MassCUE perhaps I had built it up too much in my mind.  Or perhaps I simply did not pick the best presenters to see/hear.  Whatever the case my be I left not feeling that intense and excited post conference feel that I had, had from Learning2.

My highlight of MassCUE was Critical Creativity by Dan Ryder an English teacher from Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, Maine.  I ended up in his presentation by accident I was walking with Maggie Cerjan my colleague and friend from CHS when she mentioned she was attending this session so I decided to go with her.  I am very happy I did as Dan Ryder was a dynamic presenter and I left with a few new idea in my head.

Google Sites is Changing

 

Google Sites is Changing

"Here's what’s special about the new Sites:

• Just like Google Docs, the new Sites is really easy to use and allows you to collaborate in real-time.
• Sites look great on any device by default.
• Deep integration with Google Drive makes editing, managing, and sharing sites even easier.

By the way, you will continue to have full access to the current version of Google Sites on sites.google.com. And any sites created on the new product will continue to work once it launches to everyone." taken from an email shared with me originally from:  Matthew Moran

The transition will begin in 2017. Starting 2018 Google will send timelines and directions about the gradual shutdown of classic Sites.  A specific shutdown date has not yet been determined, however Google has pledged to give a full years notice prior to the final shut down of classic Sites.

Zing!

 

Zing is a new service that offers thousands of free non-fiction and fiction ebooks to teachers and students. On Zing you can browse for books by genre, guided reading level, available level, theme and topic. You can read the books in your web browser on a laptop or tablet.

Zing is more than just a repository of free ebooks. In the Zing reader students will find a built-in dictionary and tools for taking notes while they read. Users can create a customized library.  Some books are even available as Audio eBooks and audio eLearning.