My Upcoming Schedule:

• Tuesday, Oct 18, Park Rapids, 8am – 4:30pm
• Wednesday, Oct 19, Park Rapids, 8am – 4:30pm

Please feel free to contact me at any time via my cell phone (320-241-6150), my home email (lconzemius@gmail.com) or my Park Rapids email (lconzemius@parkrapids.k12.mn.us) .

Scheduled Classes:

There is a two-hour technology class scheduled in Park Rapids on Thursday, Nov 3, on using Google Forms. I am available most days after school so please let me know if you’d like to meet with me.

Google Tip:

Very often when I’m signing up for a new account in any website I’m asked if I want to sign up (or log in) using my Google account. If the app is related only to school I will do so using my school account. This makes it easy for me to log into these apps without having to remember additional user names and passwords. But how do I know what I’ve connected? And how do I delete one that I’m not using any more? This is where your security settings come into play. Go to: https://myaccount.google.com/security and scroll down to the list of connected apps. From this list you can view all that are connected  – and remove those that you no longer user.

Links:

I want to share a few resources for free electronic books. These resources will allow you to have students open the same book on devices in your classroom (giving you full sets of books for language arts lessons), and will give you a large number of books to share with families to increase the size of their home libraries. These resources are mostly geared toward elementary students, although some have a selection of books for older students as well. Please note: if you’re looking for multiple copies of classics, all of them are available free in any electronic book reading app.

Unite for Literacy: http://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

Original non-fiction picture books support beginning readers of all ages. Features include predictable, rhythmic language; images with clear, familiar subjects; and text that ranges from one word up to a few sentences per page. Children everywhere can “see” themselves and imagine their full potential through the images in our books. Pictures that reflect a child’s eye view of the real world, in all its rich complexity, encourage rich conversation and a personal connection with books. Our books provide unique audio support to families who speak (or are learning to speak) English, indigenous or foreign languages. Simple audio buttons on each page allow you to hear narrations by native speakers in warm, expressive voices.

International Children’s Digital Library: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

The ICDL Foundation’s goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children’s literature from the world community.

More Reading Resources…

EPIC! https://www.getepic.com/educators  Thousands of books are available for teachers to use with their students a no cost! The app works on all devices and is a great resource for reading!

Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page  Over 53,000 books for readers of all ages. This collection holds ebooks for all the classics, providing multiple copies for your students.

Presenting: THE GREAT GLOBAL PROJECT CHALLENGE AND GRANT

Educators are interested in engaging in project-based learning with other classrooms around the world. Often they embark on time consuming journeys to identify potential deep learning opportunities and project partners. And, it is sometimes difficult for educators who design projects to find active participants. The Great Global Project Challenge is an initiative designed to collate projects and connect interested collaborators.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently revised its standards for students. ISTE calls for students to become empowered learners, digital citizens, knowledge constructors, innovative designers, computational thinkers, creative communicators, and most notably, global collaborators. The Great Global Project Challenge will help educators provide authentic learning opportunities for students to meet these standards.

Between now and December 1, 2016, global educators will design collaborative projects in which other students and teachers may participate during the course of the 2016-2017 school year. The objective is to create and present as many globally connective projects for students and educators as possible. Let’s see how many teachers and students we can engage in globally connected learning opportunities during the course of the next year!

Any teacher, school, nonprofit, or company can participate in this challenge and have their project listed on the Global Collaboration Day website. There will be a grant available to educators from non-profit accredited Pre-K-12 schools, thanks to sponsors VIF International Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.

The Great Global Project Challenge Grant

Grants of $1,500 (US dollars) will be issued to the the top ten projects that are designed and successfully implemented between now and April 1, 2017. The project design teams for grant-eligible projects must be made up solely of educators employed by non-profit accredited schools and can come from any country.  If projects are to be conducted in a language other than English, proposals must be submitted twice. One submission needs to be in the home language; a duplicate needs to be in English. Grant details are available here: http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/the-great-global-project-challenge-grant.html

These grants must be used for professional development, classroom equipment, or other resources that will facilitate future globally connected project-based learning. Recipients will be required to submit a plan for use of the grant monies and will be required to present at the online 2017 Global Education Conference.

A committee comprised of leading global educators and organizations will serve on the evaluation team for the Great Global Project Challenge Grant. This group will design an evaluation rubric for scoring these projects.

Curious about global project? Let me know! I’d love to work with you!