Virtual Learning Sessions with Colleen Lawson

How to Organize Your Google Classroom

Having a hard time with figuring out how to utilize your Google Classroom for your students? Check on the video tutorials below. New to Google Classroom? Click on how to get started! 

HyperDocs

Take your 1 or 2 week unit and package it for students using Google Apps.  This gives them the ability to work at their own pace with interactive activities that are embedded within the document. Best thing for you - they turn it in when they are done and you can just grade it once instead of four or five times.  Check out the powerpoint below to see how it all works!

PearDeck

Great way to convert your regular Google Slides or Powerpoints to be interactive. Add slides in between to check for understanding and get your students to do more than just take notes. Once they are done with the PearDeck, they can turn it in, giving you a copy of their answers to their embedded questions.  Makes it easy on you, fun for the students and also gives you the opportunity to see if they are understanding what they are reading/writing.

NEW CTE Online Platform

Check out the NEW CTE Online platform!

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/v_ZaA4v_0UdJHpGQ8EHcBfBwRpi-eaa81SUc_6ANmRw1ghMKWGt_Q2k4mLdJslYD

Access Password: 5Sgpb&U7

Flipgrid

Need to see if your students are understanding the content that you are teaching? Missing interacting with your students? Need to practice with your Impromptu student who is going to be participating in the regional finals? Not too sure what to do about Sectional or Chapter Officer Elections? Check out Flipgrid.  This application gives you and your students the ability to video record themselves and respond to each others recordings. All the videos are saved in one location so you can easily access their videos. Check out the tutorial video below: 

Additional Resources:

Finding yourself trapped in your home and not too sure how to go about "Digital Learning"? Maybe your school site does not provide your students with laptops/ chromebooks and you're wondering how you are going to give them assignments.  Check out some of the online resources provided below (scroll to the bottom of this post to find lessons):

How to send out assignments and collect:
  • Google Classroom - Many of you might already have this if your school site provides your students with gmail accounts. BUT if your school does not provide your students gmail accounts, you can still create your own Google Classroom! Just log into your gmail account go to "Classroom.google.com/h" and click on the "+" button in the top right corner.  You can invite students with an access code and then upload assignments for them to complete.  
  • Edmodo - The orginial Google Classroom.  You can have discussion boards, upload assignments and links to your students.  Similar to Google Classroom - they can be added through the classroom via class code. 
  • Padlet - You can post student assignments using padlet.  Again, students will be given a link to the Padlet board.  You can post links or videos and have students respond. Great way of having students discuss what they learned. 
  • Slack - Group Collaboration tool for students.  Easy way for them to communicate with eachother and share documents.  This app uses Google Docs & Google Hangouts so students can share materials with one another. 
  • Microsoft Teams - Similar to Slack.  It allows you to create a team and gives you options such as classroom setting, professional development, activity groups, etc. You can share files, upload information and even create action plans for events.  Even if you don't use this tool with your students - this would be a great tool to use with your FFA officer team or other CDE teams!

Virtual Discussions:
  • Zoom Conference -Have Face to Face conversations with your students. You can use this as a way to check in on what they are learning or use it as a way to teach them a hands-on skill or a demonstration. 
  • Flipgrid - Great tool to have students use as a "ticket out the door" or have them sum up in 2 minutes what they learned that day. Good way to check for understanding and to make sure your students are getting the objective of your lessons. 
  • Padlet

Teaching Lessons:
  • Educreations -  It gives you the ability to create electronic whiteboards with lessons and tutorials that you can share with your students. It’s easy to create diagrams, commentaries, animations, and other instructions, and you can even record audio for narrative purposes.
  • Screencastify - Google Extension - great way to record your screen and record audio explaining the lesson or teaching something new. 
Assignments:
  • EdPuzzle - Videos that have embedded questions. You can create your own or select from their library. It will even grade the assignment for you. 
  • AET - Give your students time to work on their recordbooks - you can even send them tutorial videos that Roger has posted
  • FFA.org - check out the variety of lessons that you can give students as an alternative assignment to an FFA activity. Have them explore careers within agriculture or have them create their SAE plan. 
  • Podcasts or TedTalks 
Gather Ideas:

Screencastify

Are you giving your students an assignment that has a lot of steps? Concerned that they are not going to know what do to since you are not there to show them? Having your students work on their AET record books and need to show them how to submit their hours (or start!)? Check out Screencastify.  This program allows you to video record your computer screen, record audio and can also record yourself.  This is a great tool if you are giving step by step instructions for a project or if you want to give your students a visual demonstration. Best thing - you get 5 minutes of video time and your videos are saved through your Google Drive. Check out the tutorial below for more: 

Additional Resources:

  • CTEOnline
  • University of Florida
    • Online Ag Ed Resources in the areas of:
      • Agriscience
      • Animal Science
      • Food Science
      • Plant Science
      • Miscellaneous
    • This is constantly being updated, so bookmark and check back often!
  • iCEV
  • Facebook
  • Calaged.org
    • You’re probably familiar with THESE resources, but if not have a gander!  Adapt some of the resources for an online learning environment and share with the rest of the crew.
  • NAAE
    • Communities of Practice. This resource has a repository of EVERYthing you can think of, and the people to help you understand and use the materials.
  • Nutrients for Life
    • ​Great resource for Middle and High School Ag courses.  Focus is mainly on Agriscience, Sustainable Agriculture, Plant & Soil Science, and Soil Chemistry. If you teach an Environmental class, this would be helpful too.
    • You can download curriculum, have students play interactive games and have videos for them to watch to understand the content.  Games such as Farmer 2050 is similar to "Farmville", but has educational facts embedded within the game.
    • This is a free website. 
  • Official FFA Student Handbook
    You can now access an online version of the Official FFA Student Handbook free through the end of June. The handbook in flipbook format is available alongside digital editions of our FFA New Horizons magazines. The handbook is also available as a PDF download. We hope our turnkey student handbook lesson plans, along with free access to the handbook will be helpful in your remote teaching efforts.  

  • Updated Educator Resources on FFA.org
    Numerous resources exist on the Educator Resources page of FFA.org for online or extended learning. We’ve established a table of contents document with a description of some of the most popular and new resources found in Educator Resources – including an easy reference to which resources can be used online or offline.  (Thanks to Kasey Naylor for the online/offline idea 😊).
 
  • Minecraft Education
    Microsoft is offering free resources through the end of June within Minecraft Education with lessons that are specific to agriculture and sorted by the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Pathways. Check out the Report Learning Kit to better understand how you can use this and Minecraft Education lessons and activities for learning.
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  • AgExplorer Virtual Field Trips
    In the past few years, we’ve made virtual field trips with AgExplorer to major agriculture companies all around the United States. Student handouts are available to accompany these learning opportunities – and they’re specifically designed so you can add them to learning management systems or other e-learning platforms.

  • FFA.Org
    • FFA Fundamentals: This choice board is designed to help students quickly learn FFA basics while exploring FFA.org.
    • FFA.org Scavenger Hunt: These choice boards facilitate student exploration across all facets of FFA.org as well as AgExplorer.
    • SAE Video Choice Boards: This document serves as a resource to incorporate supervised agricultural experience (SAE) videos into the classroom.  These videos allow students to learn about and develop/enhance their SAE projects.