 Meet the Meeting Owl Camera, a new tool for video conference engagement! The Meeting Owl camera has the capability to show an entire room of people or narrow the field of vision to a smaller view. The camera incorporates both a microphone and a speaker so all can be seen and heard. The Meeting Owl has a feature that will focus on the speaker(s) as they participate in the connection. Additionally, the Meeting Owl is platform agnostic making it incredibly versatile.  Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it may get even better... The Meeting Owl camera can be paired with a Whiteboard Owl camera as well. This additional tool allows the presenter to write on the whiteboard and have the image(s) appear on the board as the presenter continues writing or creating images and presenting. This Whiteboard Owl camera makes the presenter semi-transparent while the writing/images on the whiteboard remain prominent.  The Meeting Owl is coming to your district! Each district in the CA BOCES Distance Learning CoSer will be receiving one Meeting Owl for use in their district. See your Technology Director for an opportunity to explore and use this incredible tool for use in classrooms, professional development, virtual meetings, etc.
If you'd like time to explore the Whiteboard Owl camera, please contact Karen Insley, Distance Learning Coordinator. karen_insley@caboces.org (716)376-8281 By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources
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 We just finished the month of April, which is sometimes known as Earth Month since Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22nd each year since 1970. Arbor Day is also the last Friday in April, when we are reminded to plant trees. But May is when we really start to reap the benefits of Earth’s springtime! After a relatively cold April (with a couple of warm days to tease us), May is a time we can really start to rub our winter-weary eyes and stretch our legs as we venture outside to see things come alive. May begins with a lime-green undertone to all the brown-grey branches and ends in a full explosion of leaves in our faces! Somewhere in between the tiny buds on the trees burst open to reveal the trees’ means of reproduction – their flowers. There is always a hint scientific truth to weather cliches, such as “April showers bring May flowers!” Many Native American cultures call the full moon of May “the Flower Moon”, very simply because of the obvious occurrences in nature during this time of year. This year’s May full moon is on May 15th. As a bonus, this Flower Moon will undergo a total eclipse! An eclipse of the moon (lunar eclipse) happens when the Earth blocks the Sun’s light rays from reaching the moon. We can actually watch the shadow of the Earth cross the moon! To see this one, it will need to be a clear night on May 15th. The eclipse begins at 9:30pm that night and reaches totality (when Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon) around 11:30pm. You will know totality has occurred when the moon appears to turn a reddish hue. This is due to the Sun’s light rays refracting through Earth’s atmosphere, essentially bending around Earth’s surface to reach the moon. Let’s hope for a cloudless mid-May!
To get in the spirit of May, a fun activity is to make seed bombs. They are super easy, can become a springtime tradition, and are a fun gift! An added bonus to this Earth-friendly activity is that you can use paper scraps from a past craft activity, that would otherwise be thrown away. You will need:
To make seed bombs:
You can make this springtime activity into an experiment. For each of the following options, see which variable makes the plants grow best. Keep track of the plant growth over time by measuring and taking observations down on a data table.
CA BOCES Advancing STEM Kits help elementary students understand our natural world. In Kindergarten, Grade 2, and Grade 5 students learn about what it takes for plants to grow, while students in Grade 1 and Grade 5 discover patterns of our moon. For more information about Advancing STEM Kits, check out our website, or contact me anytime! Notice: The deadline is fast-approaching for an institute for teachers that are determined to implement the new science standards effectively. This is a chance to build NYSSLS-aligned assessments and integrate them into their classroom. There is an associated stipend as well as CTLE. The application process will be competitive and the deadline to apply is May 15th. Please share this opportunity with elementary teachers and secondary science teachers: Building and validating NGSS/NYSSLS Classroom Assessments By: Kelli Grabowski, CA BOCES Learning Resources Teaching post-pandemic brings challenges that we’ve never faced before. However, some challenges from pre-pandemic remain. How do we meet the task of teaching in a mixed-ability classroom? A typical class has a range from students who struggle in grasping new concepts, to those who are way ahead of their classmates from the onset, and those who fall somewhere in between. To be sure, there are a range of effective strategies that can help all students succeed. Our math team at CABOCES does a tremendous job in educating our teachers about what works and what resources help. Additionally, we’ve added math intervention kits to the warehouse shelves to compliment the work that Graham Fletcher has done in our area. But I want to circle back to a resource we’ve had for years that is a research-based, highly engaging, and self-paced solution for mixed-ability K-3 math classrooms. It makes math fun, interactive, and personalized for young learners. The program? Mathseeds. Mathseeds is a technology-based classroom tool that offers a powerful way to differentiate learning while teaching elementary math. Combine that with a good story and interest is ignited in young minds. Incorporating story problems into classroom lessons allows students to see how certain math concepts can apply to real life. Story problems are also a good way to help students understand how to use math in everyday life and see the relevance of math.  Mathseeds provides colorful end-of-lesson books as part of its online program. Many of these are designed so students read the problem, work through it independently, and then turn to the next page to see the solution.
Are your teachers using Mathseeds? If not, please reach out and we’ll make sure they are using this valuable math tool with their students. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources Imagine this being your classroom for a week!  High School students will have the opportunity to use this setting, as well as others, as their classroom for a week over the summer. Through our Environmental Science CoSer, students will investigate and study a variety of topics at a Marine Ecology Summer Camp located on the east end of Long Island.
Some of the topics to be investigated and studied will be physical and chemical oceanography, marine ecology, animal behavior, invertebrate zoology, marine fish, algae, seaside plants, birds, mariculture, man's impact on the marine environment and wetland conservation. All these investigations are led by a marine biologist who works in conjunction with the professional teaching staff. Students will also get the chance to visit locations such as salt marshes, sand dunes, rock jetties and sand flats to collect marine specimens and learn about the characteristics and importance of each ecosystem. Crabs, clams, polychaetas, mussels, jellyfish and sea stars are among the organisms that will be observed in their natural habitat. Time will also be spent in the laboratory for dissections and lectures. Students will be expected to take notes in the field and laboratory, as well as keep a personal journal. In addition to field work, students will visit a marine museum to learn about Long Island's storied whaling history as well as taking part in an actual fishing trip. Students will also visit the historic Montauk Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in New York State. Marine biologists from Long Island will lead the students in their studies. The learning opportunities in this program are unique and far-reaching. Through teamwork and field experiences, students will gain insights into the unique problems faced by organisms as they survive in salty environments. Students who are prepared for the rigorous schedule will have an unforgettable experience. This is just one of the many opportunities that the Environmental Science program at CA BOCES has to offer! For more information on these programs, please feel free to visit CABOCES Environmental Science or contact Lance Feuchter at (716) 376-8379 or lance_feuchter@caboces.org. By: Lance Feuchter, CA BOCES Learning Resources Resources found in the school library should support curricula and reflect the cultures and identities of the community. School districts within the CA BOCES region may not consider themselves diverse if only considering ethnicities, nationalities, and languages spoken. New to school libraries are diversity audits.
Auditing resources is done purposefully for ensuring that the needs and interests of the school community are being represented, which is aided by an analysis of the community. An analysis may include reviewing the district’s demographics and learning about community groups and common interests; interviewing the school nurse, guidance counselor, and social worker for understanding the needs of students and families; and using surveys to gain feedback from teachers and students. Feedback helps determine who is or is not utilizing the library and why. A diversity audit should include environmental factors as well. A clean room with comfortable seating is an inviting space. However, temperature, food allergies, pollutants, population density, sound, light, and even parasites (lice, fleas, bedbugs), can be a deterrence to visitors. Any deficiency noted on the audit can then be addressed as a new goal for the library. Some goals can be achieved relatively quickly while others may require additional funds and time. Creating awareness is a necessary first step. Another aspect of the audit is access to resources. Resources, whether digital or print, not only support curricula but should reflect a variety of interests and identities and consideration must be given to how resources are accessed. For example, are library users with physical disabilities able to independently access the library and its resources? How might a hearing or vision impaired student find the library a welcoming space? How might a student who does not speak English know how to search, locate, and checkout resources? An analysis of the community helps the librarian determine what resources to purchase and set potential goals and objectives for the library. Conducting a diversity audit is relatively easy to do once the community analysis has been completed. Below is a list of diverse topics for consideration: Diverse authors Global topics Black Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) Refugees Immigrants Gender identity LBTQ+ Asian American LatinX Religion Intersectionality Family structures Adoption and foster care People who have experienced homelessness or unstable living accommodations Socio economic diversity Disability Neurological challenges Mental health Culture The Library 510 CoSer offers print and digital resources that support many of the topics noted above. If you are interested in a diversity audit, or would like to know more about vendor products for the library, please contact me at Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org. By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources  If you made it to your first day on the job without missing a turn, either you grew up here, or you can thank Gladys West. Even though the navigation technology is relatively new to everyday citizens (I specifically remember first placing a GPS monitor on my dashboard in 2008 in preparation for a trip to Washington D.C.), GPS technology has been under construction since the 1970s. Now I wonder what we ever did without it! Even after muscle memory has been committed to all the dips and turns on my 35-minute drive, I still set the map up on my phone every morning, maybe as an extra sense of security. (And how could I ever find the nearest Tim Horton’s without GPS?) Gladys West was a hard-working, rural farm-girl from Virginia. She walked 3 miles each day to a one-room school, where she knew she had to learn as much as she could to get out of the blistering, back-breaking harvest work on her family’s small farm. She graduated top in her class, which earned her a scholarship to college. After graduating from Virginia State College, West became a teacher. While teaching, she also earned a master’s degree in mathematics. The U.S. Navy recognized her talent in this field and hired her to do computer programming and coding. Although she earned her place in this prestigious program, at the time it was not common for a woman, especially a woman of color, to do such work. Amid a backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, West felt the need to work extra hard to prove herself and provide a path for those that would follow. In the late 1970s, West became the project manager for Seasat, collecting and processing data from satellites to monitor the oceans. Her detailed mathematical calculations helped to depict an accurate model for the true shape of the Earth – a slightly squashed sphere with many crevices, high points, and vast ocean basins. This information was the groundwork needed to create GPS. GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a system of satellites that provides location and time information anywhere on or near the surface of Earth where there is an unobstructed line of site to four or more GPS satellites. Mainly used in the military in the early 1990s, the benefits of civilian use were soon realized and full capabilities of GPS were made available to the public by the year 2000. Today we use GPS without even thinking. We ask our phones to find the closest gas station, it is used in emergency and disaster communications, self-driving cars cannot function without GPS. More efficient crop management, geotagging (referencing location on photos we take with our phones), and recreation such as hiking or Pokémon Go! all rely on GPS.  Geocaching
In the spirit of having a little fun with GPS, try your hand at Geocaching. This inclusive pastime not only utilizes the tech we all have at our fingertips, but it gets us outside and interacting with our world. Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunt using a GPS-enabled device (a smartphone will do!). Geocachers navigate to a specific set of coordinates and then attempt to find a cache (container) hidden at that location. Caches can be found all over the world and almost anywhere you can imagine. They vary greatly in size and appearance – everything from large, plastic tubs to tiny camouflaged film canisters. Inside a cache there is usually a logbook for you to record your name and date of discovery and a number of items, trinkets, or souvenirs (treasures!). The rule is that you can take an item from the cache if you like, as long as you leave something of equal or greater value in its place. When you are finished, put the cache back exactly where you found it. All you need for geocaching is a smartphone and a sense of adventure! To get started, take a minute to head to https://www.geocaching.com/play to make an account. This site also has extensive geocaching information, videos, and tutorials. Once you have an account, you can download the free geocache app to your phone. This app will give you basic access to all geocaches with a difficulty rating of 1.5 and below (on a scale of 1-5). This rating will be easy enough to get you started. There’s a treasure out there waiting for you, thanks to Gladys West! By: Kelli Grabowski, CA BOCES Learning Resources As we continue to navigate the new normal of Covid and “learning loss” (or as I heard it rephrased, “unfinished learning”) we’ve worked with other coordinators and teachers to develop and purchase some math intervention kits. As students continue to struggle with memorizing math facts and then using those facts in practice, it’s obvious that something isn’t transferring. Over the summer, math specialist Graham Fletcher joined our Summer Math Institute and shared his knowledge of Building Fact Fluency Through Mathematical Storytelling, Harnessing the Power of the Purposeful Task (3-Act Tasks), and Demystifying the Fraction Rules We Teach. His sessions were well received, and he promoted new math kits he was working on. Those kits are now on our warehouse shelves. Building Fact Fluency: A Toolkit for Addition and Subtraction and then another for Multiplication and Division are available to book for our teachers, instructional coaches, specialists, and interventionalists.  The Addition and Subtraction kit helps students learn their math facts by developing deep, conceptual understanding and procedural fluency at the same time. This comprehensive, research-based toolkit provides everything a teacher needs to help students develop number sense on the way to fluency—from cards, games, and videos to online resources, a facilitator’s guide, and hundreds of highly-engaging activities and tasks.
Research-based and standards-aligned, the Multiplication and Division toolkit invites students to think strategically about mathematics through multiple, rich, real-world contexts. These accessible contexts allow students to see how number facts connect to a wide variety of mathematical situations, explore the properties of the operations, and build a foundation of strategies they can draw from efficiently and with confidence. LET’S BOOK SOME KITS!!!! Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources  Many adjustments and new learning experiences came into being in classrooms since March 2020. One of those new learning experiences came in the form of virtual field trips. So many more virtual field trips were added in response to safety guidelines and the ease of connecting to an expert or an educational experience, like a museum or zoo.
In response to the changing learning experiences available to classrooms we have added programming from Virtual Field Trips: Explore the World without leaving your classroom. Virtual Field Trips has pre-recorded videos in the following content areas: social studies, geography, life science, and ancient civilization curriculum that are standards aligned, span grade levels from Kindergarten through 9th grade and offer additional resources like worksheets, printables and assessments with each video. Each video is narrated, some are even available in a world language! Videos range in length from 5-35 minutes in length. Since the videos are pre-recorded they are NYS Education Law 2d compliant and can easily be added to the district platform that is used to communicate to students about learning experiences. This will be a value add feature to the Distance Learning CoSer 420. This is offered at no cost to your district classrooms if you are in the CoSer. We are finalizing access to this new offering so it will be easy and useful for educators. Please don’t sign up for an account on the website. We would like all CA BOCES accounts to go through our program for cost as well as data privacy concerns. You can learn more at the website: virtualfieldtrips.org By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources Natural phenomena are observable events that occur in the universe and that we can use our science knowledge to explain or predict. The goal of building knowledge in science is develop general rules, based on evidence, that can explain and predict phenomena. Despite their centrality in science, phenomena have traditional been a missing piece in science education, which too often has focused on teachers passing on general knowledge that students can have difficulty applying to real-world contexts. By centering science education on phenomena that students are motivated to explain, the focus of learning shifts from being told about a topic to figuring out why or how something happens. Students work through figuring it out because they are wondering how it works. If we simply give students the scientific knowledge, we kill the wonder. Don’t kill the wonder! Magic Milk Art Investigation PHENOMENON: How does soap get greasy dishes clean? Better yet, how does dish soap get greasy ducks clean?  Click here to observe the phenomenon. This activity involves demonstrating a supporting phenomenon and then attempting to explain it by designing an investigation. Post a photo of your students in action in our comment section or post a comment on how you modified the activity to work in your classroom. This phenomenon may be used for the following NYSSLS standards:
Students in elementary grades may likely not be able to explain in scientific terms what is happening. Allow them to draw their explanation or explain in their own vocabulary. The important part here is the wonder. With younger kids, they don’t need the real explanation at this point. MATERIALS:
TO DEMONSTRATE THIS PHENOMENON: STEP 1: Start by pouring your milk into a baking dish or other flat bottom surface. You don’t need a lot of milk just about ¼ of an inch. Then if you have one, place a cookie cutter in the milk. Allow the milk to settle before moving to the next step. STEP 2: Next you want to drop some coloring onto milk (outside of the cookie cutter).  STEP 3: Pour some dish soap into the small cup. Dip your cotton swab tip into the dish soap so the cotton is coated in soap. Then bring it over to your milk dish and gently touch the swab to the surface of the milk. What happens? DEVELOP AN INVESTIGATION: Can you explain how this phenomenon works? OPTION 1: Change the milk. Develop a data table and try repeating this experiment with different types of milk and liquids (skim, 1%, 2%, whole milk, half & half, heavy cream, or even plant-based milks or water, vegetable oil, olive oil, canola oil, etc.). OPTION 2: Change the soap. Develop a data table and try repeating this experiment with different types of soaps (shampoo, liquid hand soap, laundry detergent, or bar soap). What happens? Do you get the same effect, or does it change? Which liquids produce the most dramatic effects? Does it help you to explain how this phenomenon works? Can you explain how dish soap gets greasy pans or greasy ducks clean? Teacher Hints and tips:
 By: Kelli Grabowski, CA BOCES Learning Resources
 What would you have said a few years ago if someone had told you that schools would have a complete virtual option, and that it would be utilized in our public-school settings? How about this: What would you say to teaching Driver Education from the virtual world? Well, CABOCES did just that this past summer. Hundreds of Cattaraugus and Allegany County students benefitted from the offering of 12 sessions of online Driver Education throughout the months of July and August 2021. Due to the pandemic in the Summer of 2020, driver education was not available to students per the NYS guidelines within the school settings, so the ability to offer the course in the online format opened an opportunity for students who missed out the year before as well as those qualifying this year.  The course is housed in the CABOCES Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). The students participated daily in Zoom meetings and accessed Moodle to complete the required content and hours to fulfill the NYS Guidelines in order to earn their NYS Diver Education Certificate. The 24 hours of instruction time, paired with 24 hours of guided parental supervision behind the wheel, earns the student a certificate that allows additional privileges and safe practices as they hit the road, alongside all of us. The online course and the plan set in motion through CABOCES was a great success!! Hundreds of students received their Driver Education Certificate. They have been exposed to the training and safety measures that the Driver Education Course is designed to provide. In the future we are hoping to offer this online Driver Education opportunity throughout the school year in addition to our traditional summer program. Be on the lookout for more information about online Driver Education!!!
By: Lisa Scott, CA BOCES Learning Resources The State Library of New York provides free access to GALE databases through NovelNY and every school library and public library has a link to this fantastic resource! Databases for kids through adults, professionals and hobbyists, can be accessed directly from the Learning Resources page at resources.caboces.org, (second row of icons). If you do not know your log in information, or are wondering how your students can access, contact Rachelle_Evans@caboces.org.  A brand new feature is now available to help readers who do not see well, have reading disabilities, or simply want choice. In addition to existing features, like adjustable text size, the vendor has added display option tools for customization, including: · Additional font choices, such as OpenDyslexic, for readers with different needs. · Optional background colors to better view text on the screen. · Line, word, and letter spacing, so individuals can choose what style is easiest for them to read. Below is a screen shot of where the tool for accessibility is located:  Additionally, all articles have audio read aloud and text translation for accommodating those whose native language is not English.
If you would like more information on GALE databases, please contact Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org. By: Cece Fuoco, Learning Resources  We continue to stock our shelves at the Learning Resources warehouse. As a nod to the wave of online learning and use of technology, we’ve upped our game by adding many Osmo kits for teachers to book.
What is Osmo? Osmo turns an iPad or a Fire tablet into a learning device with games that are so fun and engaging, student won’t know they are learning! Osmo combines online gamification with physical game pieces. With the games we have on our shelves, students can draw, code, spell, do math, and more. Studies show that active learning can boost critical thinking skills, information retention, motivation, and interpersonal skills. By incorporating physical game pieces, Osmo ensures students learn by doing, even in front on a screen. Here is what we have available to book: Osmo base: This is a must. The base is the launch pad to the world of Osmo and is required to play all Osmo games. Osmo Math wizard is a self-paced, curriculum-inspired series that combines hand-on learning with digital adventure, helping students build math confidence and understanding. Using Osmo Pizza Co., students make pizza, make change, and (hopefully) make profits when they run their very own cartoon pizza shop! With a lean towards the creative side, Osmo Monster blends real-life doodles with on-screen action in amazing ways. Osmo Coding transforms a tablet into a hands-on coding adventure. The Coding Starter Kit builds coding skills in progression with 3 hands-on learning games. Watch your students learn to code as they connect colorful blocks of code in the physical world to chart the adventure on their screen. And lastly, Osmo Genius Numbers has students digging into math. Use physical tiles, including dots and digits, to match the numbers on the screen, and cartoon bubbles burst with a satisfying POP! Kids count, add, subtract, or multiply as they travel across the world to find aquatic animals in their native environments. LET’S BOOK SOME KITS!!!! Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources School librarians are required to have a graduate course in copyright law, and it was one of my favorites for its practicality. It’s relatively easy to understand when applied to the rights of the creator, however, this understanding can become muddled when Fair Use is applied. Librarians not only manage resources but have a professional code of ethics to follow, in which one of the eight articles specifically mentions copyright. With this knowledge, school librarians have a responsibility to provide guidance in how resources are viewed, used, copied, and streamed within the public-school setting.
Years ago, before technology provided fingertips easy access to a plethora of resources, there were simple guidelines for using music, photocopying print materials, and viewing videos. Not only has technology changed how we retrieve resources, but it has also drastically changed how we share resources - like videos. Streaming videos from Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Netflix into the school environment is quite easy to do but the licensing agreement applies to the subscriber’s in-home use only. Even with a movie license purchased through SWANK/Movie Licensing USA and Motion Picture Licensing Corp. (which may be purchased through the Library 510 CoSer), streaming a movie from a personal account is not permitted. So how do educators use videos for classroom use? There are three options. One is to use a physical DVD and measure its use against a Fair Use checklist, like this one from Cornell University: https://copyright.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/2016-10/Fair_Use_Checklist.pdf The DVD may be from a home collection, rented from a vendor like RedBox, or borrowed from a library. The second option is to use streamed videos from CA BOCES’ Learning Resources. PBS, Discovery Ed, and CCC Streaming. Videos are educational, entertaining, complement curricula, and have already been vetted for Fair Use. The third option is purchasing video streaming services through SWANK/Movie Licensing USA. It is rather inexpensive and offers 200 popular titles frequently requested by educators. Additionally, a school may submit an additional 15 titles into the collection. What if an educator, parent group, or student club would like to host a movie viewing for entertainment? An umbrella movie license is required and is relatively inexpensive when purchased through the Library 510 CoSer. If a movie’s title is within the bank of titles listed, the video may be shown but it cannot be streamed from a personal account. Many schools choose to have a community event and host a free movie night. Snacks and beverages may be sold to raise funds. If admission is charged for viewing the movie, it must be applied to the cost of the movie license. Although this is a quick overview due to limited space, I am happy to provide you with further information or answer additional questions. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org or (716) 376-8206. By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources Summer. A time to relax by the pool, take vacation and . . . Summer School. Yes, Summer School.
The 2021 version of CA BOCES Regional Academic Summer School (BRASS) was fully virtual with educators and learners utilizing Zoom for class sessions and Apex for course curriculum. BRASS is in the Student Programs CoSer which is led by Mary Morris in conjunction with the Distance Learning CoSer. This year was much like last year except for one significant difference. This year there were 483 student registrations from 17 districts! Last year, we had 198 students registered in BRASS. Our five teachers rose to the challenge. They built courses in Apex that met the New York State requirement of 20 hours of content/learning activities and then engaged with students in groups of as many as 45 at one time. The educators conducted social emotional check ins, provided content support and were champions for the learners daily. The learners realized much success over the course of the five-week session. 90% of the learners passed with an average of 65%+; 10% failed (includes late drops), final grade class averages ranged from 73.5 - 88.25. Congratulations to the learners and educators! In addition to the success of the BRASS program, we also offered for the first time a blended New York State Certified Driver's Education class. Our Educator for Online Learning, Lisa Scott (also a New York State certified Driver's Education Instructor), built the course in Moodle based on the New York State provided content. The educators and learners connected via Zoom for fifteen 90-minute sessions, per New York State Driver's Education course requirements. 368 learners were led by 3 educators during 12 different sessions. So far, 166 MV-285 Driver Education certificates have been issued to learners after receiving their parent supervision certification and driving log. These two examples of innovation and risk have helped make the summer of 2021 memorable for educators and learners in our region. I am proud and humbled to have been a part of both components of BRASS. Congratulations to all! By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources  The Common Core asks students to read stories and literature, as well as more complex texts that provide facts and background knowledge in areas such as science and social studies. In doing so, students are challenged and asked questions that push them to refer back to what they’ve read. This stresses critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are required for success in college, career, and life.
To aid in this initiative, Learning Resources has put new Focus Readers on the shelves. These new nonfiction readers have captivating topics, accessible text, and vibrant visuals to motivate young readers in grades K through 7. Focus Readers books combine the best elements of library books and classroom materials. We have over 600 texts to choose from with varying reading and interest levels. For every title, we have hard copies of lesson plans, curriculum standards, and quizzes. Additionally, teachers can visit focusreaders.com for educator resources, including online lesson plans, curriculum correlations, resource links, and book-related downloadables. LET’S BOOK SOME KITS!!!! Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we keep adding more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources It is always great when you can simply walk into your backyard and find amazing things…well 3rd grade students at Bolivar-Richburg were able to use an amazing resource right in our backyard…the Pfeiffer Nature Center located in Portville. Pfeiffer Nature Center is home to more than 676 acres of nature’s bounty. Here you will find miles of open-access hiking trails, a historic American Chestnut log cabin, great birding areas, a picturesque pavilion available for rent, and so much more!  Students were able to explore an assortment of activities throughout the day. Those activities included observing a vernal pond and learning about the creatures that are found there, investigating fossils, discussing bird migration, and going on a nature hike through the well-maintained trails and stopping along to way to learn about the flora and fauna.  This is just one of the many opportunities that the Environmental Science program at CA BOCES has to offer! For more information on these programs, please feel free to visit CABOCES Environmental Science or contact Lance Feuchter at (716) 376-8379 or lance_feuchter@caboces.org.
By: Lance Feuchter, CA BOCES Learning Resources New York State has provided funding for teachers and administrators to participate in a variety of professional development opportunities free of charge through the TRLE grant. CA BOCES has partnered with our regional Joint Management Team (JMT) of Erie 1 BOCES, Erie 2 BOCES and Orleans Niagara BOCES to provide resources and opportunities in the following six areas: Culturally Responsive Teaching, English Language Learners, Families as Partners, Remote and Hybrid Teaching, Social Emotional Learning and Students with Disabilities. Different focus areas offer a collection of resources that can be used this summer by educators to strengthen and deepen learning experiences for students in the coming school year.
Resources and professional development opportunities can be found on this website: https://sites.google.com/e1b.org/rethinkwny/home?authuser=0 Let's take the best learning experiences from this school year and make them better for next year! By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources During the 2020-2021 school year, West Valley CSD received S.T.E.M. resources through the Eisenhower Math and Science State Grant Program. Ryan McGinnis, Curriculum and Professional Development Coordinator, provided a virtual training on how to use Piper kits, Root Robots, Spike Lego kits, and Microbits. School librarian Jody Thiel is a proponent of incorporating S.T.E.M. into library programming, and using Microbits and one module of five easy-to-use lesson plans (offered through BBC micro:bit), Thiel’s 5th grade students practiced computational thinking and strengthened literacy skills. Literacy has evolved over time and presently requires “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge” (Kirsch & Jungeblut, 1986, as cited in Dewitz, Graves, Graves, & Juel, 2020). In preparation for Thiel’s Microbits activity students learned what data is, how it may be classified, and identified how it might be used. For example, what personal data is important for a doctor or school to request versus GameStop ® or someone online. Students practiced literacy skills by writing algorithms, coding, and creating a computerized personal assistant who advises on weather appropriate outerwear. Resource: Dewitz, P., Graves, M. F., Graves, B. B., & Juel, C. (2020). Teaching reading in the 21st century: Motivating all learners (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.  By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources
 Continuing our push to create more relevant and timely resources, we are putting many more kits on the booking system. The kits we created in January have been flying out of the warehouse and we are doing our best to keep up with the demand. We have several areas of need on which we are focusing, including play-based learning, social emotional learning, movement and balance, and fairy tales.
For play-based learning, we’ve added Magna-Tiles (teaching spatial relationships, math, logic, and problem-solving through creative building), foam “wooden” lumber pieces, multi-cultural block play family sets, and friends with diverse abilities posable play sets. Social Emotional Learning kits are working their way onto our warehouse shelves. We’ve started by adding Grab and Write SEL Prompts for Grades K-2, and 3-5. Great for daily writing or group conversations, the cards cover topics such as friendship & teamwork, self-control and more. For movement and balance, River Stones are now available. They are designed to improve coordination and balance. Jumping or stepping from stone to stone develops a child's confidence in their ability to judge distances and are a great sensory and gross motor activity. We also now have scarves and ribbons movement sets. Creating a bridge between STEM and ELA, Fairy Tales Problem Solving Kits are available to book, including Rapunzel, The Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. In addition, we have the Happy Architect Fairy Tales kit, wherein creative play and storytelling are all rolled into a beautiful set of wooden toys. LET’S BOOK SOME KITS!!!! Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources Environmental science is best experienced by picking up physical objects, observing, discussing, sharing... Well, 4th grade students at Cuba-Rushford and 1st grade students at Hinsdale, along with hundreds of other students in the CABOCES region, get to experience these interactive experiences still…but at a distance. All the programs that the Environmental Science CoSer has to offer, have been transformed to allow students to be immersed in the wonders of learning about the remarkable features of the environment around us, the mysteries of animal behavior, and the natural wonders of how living (and non-living) things interact with each other.  Here students in 4th grade at Cuba-Rushford are learning about animal senses by observing why the Burmese Python can use its tongue to smell or why a Termite will follow a pen line when drawn. Students discovered the many mysteries of how and why animals use their senses to survive. Pictured below are students in 1st grade at Hinsdale discovering where the concept of Velcro came from or how mimicking shark skin on a swimsuit can help someone swim faster. Realizing that humans use nature to invent incredibly important items in our everyday life is the process called biomimicry. Using this information, students were able to make a connection with other biomimicry examples in their life  These are just a few of the many Environmental Science programs that CA BOCES has to offer! For more information on these programs, please feel free to visit CABOCES Environmental Science or contact Lance Feuchter at (716) 376-8379 or lance_feuchter@caboces.org.
By: Lance Feuchter, CA BOCES Learning Resources An educator with experience in distance learning shares what he’s learned: Keep it simple, and build in as much content as possible.https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-tips-supporting-learning-home  In 2020, a challenging profession became a bit more challenging overnight. Last March, teachers woke one morning, and their workdays were very different. Some of the challenges teachers faced daily no longer existed, while new challenges took their place. It has been a year since shifting to online teaching in some form, and what a year it has been. Focusing on the positive, there has been growth, there has been perseverance, and there has been dedication among the many positive aspects. As we come into the one-year anniversary, I thought that sharing some tips that may have been overlooked through all those challenges would be appropriate, and possibly could be applied as teachers reflect and plan future lessons in education.
The article written by Kareem Farah is found on the Edutopia website ( www.edutopia.org ). The author shares struggles and provides some solutions to consider as shifting to teaching online. Most teachers are beyond the shifting point, being that we have been shifting, dodging and weaving for the past year, but looking back teachers can hopefully acknowledge the personal growth in learning with technology alone. Teachers are always creating new lessons, recreating and then start it all over again to incorporate the latest strategies to ensure that they are providing the best learning environment they can. Even with the online shift, the time to recreate or modify has not changed. I am hopeful that somewhere in this article, one of the suggestions will add another component to the amazing lessons that teachers prepare for their students. Be Kind and Be Well. By: Lisa Scott, CA BOCES Learning Resources  Mr. Arron Wixson’s 7th grade general music class was in for quite a treat after Christmas break. Mr. Wixson worked with Mark Beckwith from CABOCES Professional Development to be one of the first teachers in our area to use the new Ukulele’s that were purchased at CABOCES Learning Resources. The 7th grade students worked with Mr. Wixson for about 6 weeks learning the scales and the chords so that before the February break they’d be able to play a song of their choosing. Everyone had a ball learning the new and unique instrument, and the sounds of ukulele’s filled the Friendship halls daily. Thank you Learning Resources team and Mark Beckwith for helping make this happen. We can’t wait to use them again next year.
 In December, 2020 Learning Resources recorded 148,893 searches in NewsBank. This database is filled with the most recent news collected from 11,706 regional, state, national and international sources. Students and faculty can search for news, blogs, videos, transcripts related to many topics including SEL, STEM, Diversity Equity Inclusion, Sports, and more. NewsBank’s Hot Topics feature makes it easy for 7-12 grade teachers to engage students in current events with ready-made questions related to articles. Those looking to bring perspective into the classroom or research project can search for an article by topic and/or any location in the world. Digitized newspapers from 1690-2000 provide historical perspective as well. Historic newspapers can be searched by either the timeline or topic search to easily find news and eyewitness accounts and pro/con articles of events. Consider issues and daily life in the colonies or during the Revolutionary War, westward expansion, the Civil War, Reconstruction, industrialization, the Progressive Era, World War I, the Great Depression, Vietnam War, World War II, Civil Rights Movement, Cold War, globalization and other eras. Users can search for illustrations, advertisements, classifieds, birth and marriage announcements, obituaries, stories about historic people and other articles exactly as they appeared in print.  Although February is widely recognized as Black History Month, Black Life in America offers curated articles for easy retrieval and meaningful discourse year-round. Newsbank is offering FREE access to its database, Black Life in America through the month of February 2021. It provides comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from earliest times to today, and articles are curated from 19,000 American and global newspapers from 1704 to the present, including over 400 African American newspapers. Users are provided with full-text searching as well as access to content by Topic, Event, and Eras in African American History. This database is updated daily.
If you would like to know more on how to use this database, please contact Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources  We’ve been busy here at Learning Resources the past few months. New items are on the warehouse shelves and are available now on our resources page. We’ve been focused primarily on our younger learners, those in Pre-K, K and 1st grade. Additionally, play-based learning has also been an emphasis.
New additions include foam block builders, with realistic pretend bricks, cinder blocks, and rock wall builders. LEGO DUPLO kits are also now available. We have Wild Animals sets, Large Farm kits, and Build Me Emotions kits. This latter kit allows children to explore emotions and physical characteristics while developing social skills. As children collaborate on a range of character-building experiences, they recognize feelings and identify similarities and differences. Building cards provide support and inspiration so children can continue to build and rebuild characters again and again. Continuing the theme of play-based learning, we’ve added soft dinosaur sets, pretend and play doctor sets, community workers sets, and North American wildlife sets. And then to round out our new kits are those that focus on small motor skills. Double-sided dexterity boards offer six dexterity functions: button, zipper, snap, buckle, Velcro®, and bow tying. The lace board is an excellent prop in teaching children how to tie their shoes. We also have stack and sort boards that feature colorful counting discs to sort onto stationary pegs. Double-sided, wooden squares have screened numbers 0 through 9 and a corresponding dot count on the opposite side. Rearrangeable, loose parts allow for multiple matching, counting, addition and subtraction activities on or off the board. Sounds like fun, eh? Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources Are you looking for resources for students that explore a variety of careers? Do you want something that is ready to use with an activity and follow up work? Below are some options that may be helpful, and they are free!    If you have any questions about Career related resources, don’t hesitate to contact any of the following members of the Learning Resources team at CA BOCES:
Cece Fuoco Library Media Services Coordinator cecelia_fuoco@caboces.org Alexandra (Alex) Freer Digital Media Coordinator alexandra_freer@caboces.org Karen Insley Distance Learning Coordinator karen_insley@caboces.org By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources |
