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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
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 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  Big Idea Learning blog article written by Sophie Murphy
https://www.bigideaslearning.com/blog/13-tips-for-teaching-with-clarity-and-purpose-during-distance-learning-2 In 2008, renowned textbook author Dr, Ron Larson founded Big Ideas Learning, https://www.bigideaslearning.com . They are a leading publisher for mathematics curriculum, by providing cohesive, coherent and rigorous mathematics curriculum. They look to empower teachers and support student learning for K-12. Although this may be a wonderful resource, my intention is to share the blog article from this website pertaining to teaching with clarity and purpose as we conquer the distance learning arena. In her weekly online blog article, the author Sophie Murphy, provides some tips for guidance to better teach with clarity and purpose during distance learning. 13 to be exact, hence the title of the article “13 Tips for Teaching with Clarity and Purpose During Distance Learning”. She has recognized within the article that we are navigating new ways to teach our students while not being in the classroom with them, and that we have been given no time to prepare in these everchanging times. With that being said, I think we can all agree that there have been times of confusion as to what and how we should be implementing our lessons most effectively. In her article, Sophie touches on some practices that will be helpful in continuing to deliver daily lessons with the same clarity and purpose as in the traditional classroom setting. In reading the blog article you will find a list of the 13 tips she has compiled to share, however I wanted to mention one in particular. It is her 13th tip, “Be kind to yourself. Know that we are here to continue to support you.” As a member of the CABOCES Instructional Support Services, Distance Learning team this caught my attention and prompted me to share this article. “Be kind to yourself”, be sure to take some time to do this. Whatever it may be that makes you feel better, take that time regularly and believe that you deserve it. “Know that we are here to support you”, you can be sure of that statement. We are here, ready, willing and able to assist you. Just in case you are not aware of all the supports available to assist you, I will share. CABOCES Instructional Support Services (ISS) has many areas for personal and professional growth within Professional Development, and the coordinators are always working to put a specialized training together based on the needs within the districts. However, ISS is not just about the professional development. Within Learning Resources, there are endless online learning opportunities through distance learning for students. The online experience is even supported with two face to face teacher that guides students through the process, and they provide information of students’ progress to the districts with regularly scheduled check ins. Here is the link: https://caboces.org/services/learning-resources/distance-education/online-courses/. There are many elective and course opportunities to be shared that may not be offered within the walls of the districts. It expands the choices and the variety of content the students could be exposed to in their educational journey. And please if you do not see what you are looking for, reach out, we will be glad to search for you. ISS will provide supports for just about every need, and if we do not have it, we will try to find it. Be sure to reach out to any of the ISS staff and take advantage of all the supports we have to offer the participating districts. Take a few minutes, read the article and hopefully it will give you some information you can use during these everchanging experiences in the education world. Be Kind and Be Well, Lisa Scott, CABOCES Learning Resources  A teacher preparing for remote instruction had heard about TeachingBooks from a colleague and called me for more information. Specifically, she planned to read a book to students and was looking for a vocabulary list. Within, TeachingBooks, the teacher located a vocabulary list, three lesson plans, and a pre-recorded author interview. Unlike OverDrive and popular ebook sites, TeachingBooks does not offer ebooks for download.
TeachingBooks is free to all CABOCES’ districts and provides publisher permissions for virtual read-alouds. Educators may browse PreK – 12 titles and author resources, discover virtual teaching ideas, access passages to 35,000+ books, and share resources via email and Google Classroom. Lesson plans and vocabulary lists assist in meeting learning objectives, and author interviews generate excitement about the book. Although this resource is available to teachers, students should know about it too. K-12 students can visit resources.caboces.org and log in with a generic username and password (see your school librarian) to meet authors and illustrators with exclusive movies and recordings, experience over 12,000 read-along audiobook experiences, hear authors pronounce and tell the stories of their names, and enjoy over 1,500 complete book readings. Students undecided on what to read can find book suggestions through the Reader’s Advisory. Contact Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org to discover how to use this resource for your remote instruction. By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources  Students are connecting with a broad collection of ebooks and audiobooks through OverDrive’s Sora app. Inspired by educator and student feedback, Sora offers both assigned and pleasure reading incentivized with digital badges for achievements. It was also named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2019. During spring and summer 2020 Zoom trainings, educators downloaded Sora onto personal devices and discovered how to change an ebook’s font style to dyslexic, increase text size, highlight text, and make notes – even in an audiobook. Teachers were thrilled to learn that class sets can be assigned to students and highlighted texts and notes may be exported in response to an assignment. As a result, 19 titles (class sets) have been assigned to more than 450 students in 7 districts since September. The combination of convenience, ease of reading on-the-go without wi-fi, and personalized reading experience has led to over 9,127 non-assigned ebooks and audiobooks being borrowed within the CABOCES’ region September 1 through October 27, 2020. See the graph below for the most popular titles checked out since September 1, 2020.  This digital collection is not limited to students in grades PreK – Twelve. Teachers and support staff can access many books featured in the NY Times’ Best Seller’s list and USA Today’s popular titles, as well as those that complement PD trainings.
For more information on how to maximize Sora at your school, please contact Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org. By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/in-some-ways-kids-are-better-off-with-distance-learning/?utm_source=Ed%20Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9%2F18%2F20
Christiansen Institute blog article written by Thomas Arnett The Christiansen Institute is a respected research-based leader in Disruptive Innovation at all levels. In addition to a blog subscription, the Christiansen Institute offers free resources, research and other valuable tools for today’s ever-changing world. You can find more at: christenseninstitute.org When I first read the headline from the Christensen Institute blog in September I was immediately intrigued. I have been considering the headline for a few weeks as I work with CA BOCES districts and teachers in my role as Distance Learning Coordinator. I also admit that I read the article with the lens of a working parent of a student who is learning at a distance 3 days a week this school year. I have had many conversations within my different roles over this article as I digest the contents of this blog. No doubt distance learning has it challenges for our students, families, teachers and administrators. The list of challenges is great, but some of those challenges have been met or at least lessened since the start of this school year. Many districts have increased the availability of devices and internet access providing some relief for families and students in our most remote/rural areas. Three districts have created opportunities for fully remote elementary level students using a combination of an online content provider and digital resources from our Digital Media CoSer. In all three districts the students were provided school issued devices and have academic support from an assigned New York State certified teacher in the district. Two of the three districts have a similar arrangement for students in grades 6-12. These examples, in addition to the numerous students that are receiving online courses at the middle and secondary levels provide insight into how distance learning may be better for kids. They also show how distance learning is meeting the needs of the students and families that are restricted from face to face attendance at school, but still allow for developmentally appropriate academic content to be provided. The article goes on to mention some of the benefits of fully remote learning that some, I hope many, students are experiencing. Among those benefits are, having families more involved in student learning. Having the time outside of school to explore more than is possible during a typical school day, like watching the stars at night, following up on assigned learning activities that the families are more aware of and can elaborate on. These examples, and more, coupled with the amazing adjustment teachers made to their face to face environments to make them more accessible and digital for remote learning have made distance learning better for students. Providing access to learning when face to face isn’t an option is a workable alternative. Is it better for all students? Maybe, maybe not. At CA BOCES Distance Learning we have options for consideration that may make it better for students. I will leave it to you to answer the question, are kids are better off with distance learning? By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources  If you are as “seasoned” as me, you may well remember when The Mailbox was a print magazine and was delivered to....your mailbox! The Mailbox is no longer in print, but here at CABOCES Learning Resources, we’ve provided access to the digital version.
Out of frustration born by the lack of practical, ready-to-use materials for the classroom, The Mailbox was created in 1973 by teachers, for teachers. One of the reasons we looked into The Mailbox is because it uses creative ways to teach content that is aligned to standards. Pre-K to 6 grade teachers can find over 52,000+ worksheets, crafts, forms, songs, games, graphic organizers, patterns, clip art, cards, and more, spanning a diverse range of subjects, including language arts, math, social studies, science, classroom management, and arts and crafts. Engaging, skill-based student practice sheets are perfect for assessments, morning work, guided learning, and small-group or independent practice and homework. Teachers can easily download ideas directly to their computers (in PDF format), print them, or save them in their Collections folder or Print Packet for later. If you or your teachers need more information or training on this or any of our eResources, please feel free to reach out to us directly. We are here to serve you and be your Essential Partner. By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources We know that teacher immediacy and creating learning communities is essential for any successful and positive educational experience. Students may wonder—is my teacher interested in my life? does my teacher have a vested interest in my success? are my assignment good enough? do I feel like I am part of this class and that my presence matters? But what does teacher immediacy and community look like in a blended learning environment or even in a fully online, asynchronous course? How do we make sure that all our students, who we root for passionately, know that we are still there cheering them on and trying to protect and inspire them in the world of ones and zeros?  In her blog, Rebecca Heiser (2019) notes that teacher immediacy is defined by Wiener and Mehrabian (1968) as “non-verbal and verbal queues and the psychological distance between the communicator and recipient,” which means that it is our job as teachers to make students feel like they are, figuratively, sitting on a beanbag in our virtual classrooms able to be seen and heard even when they are at home with headsets, on a videoconference call, or working in Moodle, Schoology or Microsoft Classrooms. They are physically far away, but should feel as though they are able to pop into our rooms and share a moment of their day, happy or difficult, and that we will be there with joy or comfort, that they can ask a question and we will help guide them to an answer, that they still can communicate with their peers and collaborate in our classroom communities. As mentioned in Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction, “…experienced online instructors have found that interaction is actually the essence of the course” (pg. 8). As teachers, we must come up with ways to make our students feel like we are right there even when we cannot be and that students’ peers are still their community and fellow collaborators.  So how do teachers create a community and make our presence known in an online educational setting? How do we use technology to bring us together even as we are asked to social distance and remain apart? Like everything in education, making a connection to our students is the foremost priority.
One of the most important findings in online educational research is the importance of making our students feel that their teachers are immediately available even though that is not always feasible. Here are some introductory best practices (found through multiple sources listed at the end of this post) that I have used in my own online teaching and can be great starting points: 1.Respond as soon as possible to submissions, emails, and texts, but give a timeframe to accommodate your own time and needs. For example, “I will respond to your emails within 24 hours and I will respond to your assignment submissions within 3 days.” 2.Create discussion forums, but do not feel the need to respond to every student. Instead, respond to a couple of different students in each forum, but respond deeply and thoroughly with comments, guiding questions, and outside resources. Students will see your presence and know that you are thinking about their answers but responding will not overwhelm you. Ask students to do the work and respond to classmates as well so that everyone is getting feedback and creating community at the same time. 3.Brainstorm virtually using chat boxes in synchronous videoconference situation or use shared documents or the top lines of discussion forums to answer and then be able to quickly review student ideas in asynchronous online course situations. 4.Give feedback using a variety of tools and methods. For example, try a short video answer to student questions. Use images that might help students understand a written explanation or to invite conversation. Record audio feedback so that students can hear tone and inflection. And of course, rely on text with email, and when it makes sense, set up a videoconference for more difficult or lengthy “in person” conversations. 5.Have set “office hours” where any student can meet you in a webinar during that time but let students know that they may end up meeting in a group. Set up separate individual conferencing sessions for more serious conversations and invite parents and guardians to join in. 6.Create spaces for students to just talk and be themselves but guide their chatter with some questions about the topics they are learning in classes or have conversations about events that they are still engaged in like music, sports, or clubs. Help students have productive conversations and share about their lives like they might done in person before class, in hallways, or when they stopped by to talk between classes. 7.Set up group work with spaces like break-out rooms in Zoom. Mix and match the groupings or pairings. 8.Create shared documents or Wikis, perhaps even a blog or an online school newspaper where students create the news and stories that are important to them. 9.Create collaborative projects that feel like real-world experiences where students can use videoconferencing to showcase talents and creativity. 10.Create safe social media spaces where students can collaborate and share projects that they have completed as well as share ideas and help one another when they get stuck on an assignment or project. All these ways of communicating help create online community through teacher immediacy that make us feel like a whole that is working together again and gives us opportunities to be heard and seen in our digital lives. References Conrad, R-M., & Donaldson, J. (2011) Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Heiser, R. (2019, February 19) Social presence expectations in distance education. Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/rebeccaheiser/2019/02/19/social-presence-expectations-in-distance-education/ Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2010) Teaching online: A practical Guide. New York, NY: Routledge. Mattson, K. (2017) Digital citizenship in action: Empowering students to engage in online communities. Portland, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Rice, K. (2012) Making the move to k-12 online teaching: Research-based strategies and practices. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources Many beliefs in American society have become politicized and school environments naturally foster discussions around such issues. As a result, opinions are freely expressed regardless of depth of knowledge. Whether a conversation about free speech, the upcoming presidential election, or if vaccines are necessary, just about everyone is ready to express an opinion. Texts, statements, videos, photographs, and eyewitness accounts offer support for facts, yet constructing knowledge requires going beyond conjecturing for strengthening information literacy skills. Here are some basic tips:
In making these tips practical for students, consider applying information literacy skills to everyday life. Did someone send a mean text? Well, who is the author? Who is the intended audience? What was the purpose? A discussion can then take place on what friendship is and a possible remedy for the situation. Similarly, this conversation can take place when opinions are expressed about a sports team. Challenge students to support their opinions with knowledge gained from several sources. What is the evidence? What are some other viewpoints? What authority is contributing to your knowledge? Everyone has an opinion about something but whether they can use knowledge to defend that opinion is something else. By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources Challenge
With recent launches of rockets and a few more happening in July, it's time to blastoff this month with the STEM Challenge! Check out the Events Calendar at Kennedy Space Center for upcoming launches to watch them live or previous launches to prepare for builidng your own rocket to launch. Your challenge is to create and design a rocket and launch pad for blastoff. Adjust the rocket fuel and rocket design to see which provides the best blastoff. What size rocket will work best? What if the rocket had fins or other designs? Does the ratio of fuel ingredients matter? What about the ratio of fuel to the rocket size? What should the rocket launch pad be? The goal is create the best rocket you can and to experiment with all those questions! Design some sort of launch pad first. The goal of the launch pad is to hold the bottle upside down in an upright position. Next, decide on a plastic bottle to use as your rocket and design your rocket. Finally, experiment with the ratio of your rocket fuel or baking soda and vinegar. Your creation does have some criteria and constraints. Make sure safety is noted at all times. After the rocket is fueled, place it in the launch pad, and back away. Only launch rockets in a wide open spaces and from the designed launch pad. For launching, fill the bottle with the chosen vinegar ratio, pour the baking soda on a 4"x4" piece of paper towel, wrap up the baking soda with the paper towel, stuff it carefully into the spout of the bottle, cork the bottle, and turn it upside down into the launcher and move quickly out of the way. Prepare for blastoff! Materials
Hints and Tips for Success
By: Clay Nolan, CA BOCES Learning Resources Environmental Education is all about using the resources around us to understand how our world works. Beyond the in-classroom programs, the Environmental Education CoSer offers programs where students can use those resources to do many hands-on immersive educational experiences. Students can be expected to be surrounded by fresh sounding streams, cool thick forests, and calming lakes. Science on Seneca and our Ecology Camp have been long standing, successful programs. We are excited to expand our outdoor learning experiences to offer the Audubon Community Nature Center (Jamestown), Buffalo Audubon (North Java), Reinstein Woods (Buffalo), and Allegany State Park. Here are some programs that will get your students out of the classroom:      These programs, plus the in-classroom experiences, are offered through our Environmental Science CoSer! For more information on these programs or others available to you through Environmental Science please feel free to contact Lance Feuchter at (716) 376-8379 or lance_feuchter@caboces.org.
By: Lance Feuchter, CA BOCES Learning Resources  Figure 1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_nOmfBUSJI6V2G26EgKNpbQ.png by Antniogonzals For me, blended learning has always been a necessity because it adds another element of creativity, provides otherwise unreachable resources, and promotes collaboration in education. It also allows for multiple kinds of learning environments to help differentiate instruction. Moving from brick-and-mortar classrooms and blended learning to solely online education was not where I thought I was heading when I set out to be a teacher years ago, but it has changed my perception of what learning looks like and also made me a more flexible and mindful curriculum designer. When I started, there were some undeniably frustrating days. How do I reach students? How do I keep them engaged? How do I know they are learning? As I progressed, I reminded myself, these are the questions every teacher must face every year no matter how the curriculum is presented. There are simply different ways of observing what is successful and who needs support. It is up to us as educators to develop a course design that encourages and provides resources to foster the best possible learning experience for every student no matter what way the curriculum is presented. And then COVID-19 happened. Even though I am an online educator with my curriculum housed in Moodle, I still was not ready for this challenge. Although not a typical to an online teaching experience, I was used to meeting with my students whenever possible to check in, to see facial expressions, and make personal connections. That loss was palpable. These changes have made it apparent how valuable it is for educators to be able to go seamlessly from an in-person to online to offline experience. Of course, few if any are there yet, but I think this needs to be part of our new-found educational literacy in the teaching world. The set-up is difficult, but the results are undeniably valuable now and even when we are back in classrooms. Setting up our classrooms to be both online and in person, having that flexibility, is important for students who are at home because they are on medical leave, for parents wanting to check in, for collaboration with colleagues, students, and parents, and for having a supply of back-up resources ready for every situation. It’s valuable for substitute teachers. It’s valuable for teachers in the moment who need to differentiate instruction. Here are some scenarios. Did Johnny fail a test on algebra? I have a tutorial for that. Did Anika struggle with synonyms? I have an interactive video for that. Today, I need to have individual meetings with my students, but I want anyone not meeting with me to work on another assignment. There’s a simple solution because there are projects, readings, and activities ready to go in their online course. As it happens, this online course also hosts audio files, transcripts, and has printable and downloadable materials so that students without internet can take materials home on their school provided device or to their personal computer. Do I need my student to catch up on a lesson, unit, or semester they need to retake? Well, I have a credit recovery options available. Are a few students way ahead? That’s great because I can open a section in my online course that has extra resources, so the student remains engaged. I can do all of this because I already have my collection of tools, resources, curriculum, and my course designed in an online space where students and parents can go to seek guidance, examples, and choose the next step in their educational experience. Many educators have gradually started this process well before now and have some online space set aside with supplementary materials, lesson plan outlines, and activities. but most of us were not ready to teach everything this way. And for classes like welding and physical education, there may not be experiences that compare with hands-on education until we get advanced virtual reality capabilities, but there are still detailed and complementary online curriculums that can reinforce previous or prepare for future educational experiences. The good thing is that we have a lot of tools to make online education a wonderful addition to our classrooms, even if we don’t yet have the infrastructure.  Figure 2: https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-ssdep I work in distance learning at CA BOCES, so I know that through Learning Resources, it’s possible to find content for all types of classes – core, electives, AP, honors, CTE, and credit recovery. This is an invaluable tool chest because educators are juggling so much right now. We don’t have time to transfer all of our content into an online compatible form, try to reach all of our students at home, learn new technologies on the fly, continue to teach regular classes, prepare new material, and learn how to set up a course immediately all while keeping up with our own families. We have all tried and as successful as possible, but if you’re like me there is always more that’s possible and always a way to improve. If your district belongs to the DL COSER, CA BOCES might be able to help provide pre-made curriculum and as educators, we can supplement with our own material until we have time to create our own online classes.
I’ve found that the curriculum is excellent. It was created by education experts and is updated regularly to make sure that it’s current. Further, it includes resources that would take teachers months to gather. When I’ve used it, I’ve kept what I like, and added my own materials based on my expertise. Maybe as a teacher, I know that I have a better assessment or direct instruction, or my co-teacher has personal experiences that are invaluable to the learning experience, so I add those into my course. Maybe it’s clear that you know exactly how to engage your students, so you replace or add to the provider’s content with your own short videos. There are so many options and what I’ve learned using online content is that I don’t have to do everything. I can rely on my strengths, my knowledge of students and their lives, and my ability to tailor the best educational experience for students and I don’t have sacrifice parts when something unexpected happens. And to add to that, I can reach out to specialists at CA BOCES and get wonderful professional development on how to work in Moodle or another online platform, to help me make changes to my courses, to implement new digital resources, and to be ready in this interconnected and blended world. That is truly a blessing during this time of change and unpredictability. By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources We are always looking for ways to improve our Moodle instance and this spring has been no different. We have added two features that will provide additional support for our students and out teachers. ReadSpeaker and DocReader are both available for student support. Intelliboard offers data reports that will support teachers as they monitor student engagement with the course content. You will find more information about each in the paragraphs below. ReadSpeaker is a block that will appear on each page of your course. You may need to change the Appearance of your course if you don’t see any blocks. Clean is a good option if you need to make a change. Contact Karen Insley or Carrie Oliver if you need any help with changing the appearance. The DocReader icon will appear automatically to the right of any document you have in your course. This will read any document, allow students to highlight text and make notes from the highlighted text and much more. Here are the links to the playlists and the downloadable package.
Intelliboard will appear as the Instructor Dashboard on the left hand side of the teacher’s screen, near where your courses are listed. When you select the Instructor Dashboard you will see a visual representation of student interaction and engagement. There are also reports that you can select from for each of your courses. The resources below will give you further guidance on what is available and how to access it as a valuable resource for you.
Please contact us if you have any questions or would like some training! By: Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources
Teachers looking to help students in grades K-12 develop and strengthen social-emotional skills can use a curated collection of picture books chosen specifically for engaging students. High school and middle school students enjoy being read to and picture books will add a twist and bring new meaning to a classic story. For younger students, pictures provide deeper meaning and help identify emotions. In just 15 minutes, you can have students internalizing what it means to be kind, thoughtful, or compassionate to name just a few character traits. This guide will help you ask questions for facilitating enriching discussions for students in all grades. Most titles can be found in your school library but many are available in OverDrive, which is perfect for using with Zoom. Just download the ebook onto your personal device, share your screen (be sure to check the box to share computer sound), and you are ready to read. To avoid copyright infringement, do not record and/or share on a public platform.
If you have further questions about library resources or library related questions, please contact Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources With the pause created by the Covid 19 pandemic, the Learning Resources department is, now more than ever, responsive to our districts needs.
By: Alex Free, CA BOCES Learning Resources
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