Code with TESIC a CS EdWeek Contest

CS Education Week Contest Details

TESIC Coding Resources  for CS Education Week

 

TESIC Google Certified Educator Prize Draw Fall 2020

 

Attention NLTA TESIC members!! We had such great participation in the spring with our #GoogleCE contest that we've decided to hold another prize draw! If you are a current NLTA member and have received your Google Certified Educator Level 1 or 2 certifications since June 18, 2020 or will become certified by December 18, 2020, you are eligible to enter this prize draw! We will be awarding $50 gift cards to ten lucky NLTA members! The deadline to enter this prize draw is Friday, December 18th. Entry form:

https://bit.ly/TESIC_GCE

Back to School Learning - Minecraft: Education Edition Certification

 

All students in NLESD have access to Minecraft Education Edition! It is a great way to teach a number of different topics and concepts in a way that it is cross-curricular and fun! Not just that, with the recent changes Minecraft Education now runs on Chromebooks!

If you want to feel prepared to use this great program you can take this comprehensive course, and get certified as a Minectaft Educator! 

Minecraft: Education Edition Teacher Academy

Back to School Learning - Screencastify

 

If a picture says a thousand words, what does a short video say? Screencastify is an awesome tool for making short videos of your computer screen. It is great for filming for a how-to, or even short lessons. In the free version, videos are limited to 5 minutes or less, but really, that is a LOT of time to explain one concept. Videos can be saved to your Google Drive, or uploaded to Youtube as well!

Screencastify offers 3 courses to help you get the best out of the tool. 2 levels for teachers, and 1 level for students!

Screencastify Courses

If you finish any of the courses, be sure to tweet at @nltatesic and let us know!

Back to School Learning - FLipgrid Certified!

 

Flipgrid is a video response platform run by Microsoft. Known for its ease of use, and the fact that it works on almost any platform, and it is great way to have student respond to discussions, without having to talk in front of the class!

They offer 3 levels of certification, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. By the time you finish level 3, you aren't just considered a a Flipgrid Educator, but a GridGuide. 

Again, this a free certification that you might find useful in the coming school year.

Flipgrid Certification

Back to School Learning - Kahoot! Certification

 

Kahoot! is a popular online quiz website. Teachers can create quizzes with words and images that can be completed as a group activity, or done solo at home. They offer 3 levels of certification, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and by completing them you can make yourself quite familiar with the site.

Check out the link on their certification page and see if you want to spend a few hours becoming Kahoot! certified before the school year starts! Don't worry, the certification is free!

Kahoot! Certification

Getting Unstuck NL - Scratch Coding Challenge Winners

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Getting Unstuck Scratch Coding Challenge! Over the month of May participants completed 20 different Scratch Coding Challenges based on the original Getting Unstuck Challenge created by the Creative Computing Lab at Harvard University. 

Hundreds of projects were created by those taking part. Some were extremely weird, some were fun, others directly connected to school curriculum. In all cases participants reported that they learned a lot about Scratch, and also had a lot fun!

All those who finished at least 10 of the 20 projects will receive a sticker and a post card in the mail. A random draw was held from that list and 10 lucky winners will receive a Scratch Coding Book and $20 gift card from Amazon.ca!

Check the video below to find out who the winners are!

TESIC Presents: Google Classroom Virtual PL

***Update*** May 23rd, 12:40pm

The session filled up in 40 minutes! We do encourage you to sign up for the wait list (same link) because for each session there have been multiple people who have had to cancel. If you are on the wait list you will get an email asking you to fill one of those spots. If you aren't on the wait list... well, you aren't on the list.

We will be opening registration for the last session of our Virtual PL series tomorrow (Saturday) at Noon. The topic will be an Introduction to Google Classroom. For updates on registration please follow us on social media and check our website!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Virtual PL Series, we appreciate your interest and dedication! If you missed out on our Classroom or Meet sessions we'd like  to provide you with the support documents. 

Google Classroom Documents

Google Meet Documents

Register Here

If you did not receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite for the event, you are not registered. 

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 6 - Stacey Hopkins

Melissa Lee talks to Stacey Hopkins, Gr. 6 teacher at Leary's Brook Junior High, located in St. John's about her adventures with tech in the classroom! 

Stacey has a lot to share, with some great examples about how any teacher can really start incorporating technology into all aspects of their classroom. 

You can listen at the link below! Find all of our previous episodes on the main menu or our website.

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 6 - Stacey Hopkins

Google Meet and Google Classroom PL with TESIC! ***ALL FILLED***

***UPDATE***

We added 20 more spots for each session (80 total) on Saturday at noon and they sold out in 5 minutes. TESIC will continue to evaluate what we can do to help teachers in the NLTA, and hopefully will be able to continue to keep offering sessions like these. However, the members offering these sessions are teachers like you, so we do have a limited ability keep doing them, despite the great demand.

The Technology Education Special Interest Council (TESIC), of the NLTA, is providing four virtual PL sessions on the technical features and the practical applications of Google Meet & Google Classroom throughout the week of May 19 - 22. Registration for these sessions is free. There is limited availability for each session so if you're no longer able to attend, please let us know.

Tuesday, May 19 (AM): Google Classroom

Tuesday, May 19 (PM): Google Meet

Thursday, May 21 (AM): Google Meet

Thursday, May 21 (PM): Google Classroom

#FIRSTCanadaCodeIt Challenge

FIRST Canada would like to invite up to 25 youth (ages 12-18) from across Newfoundland and Labrador to participate in the #FIRSTCanadaCodeIt Challenge and provide them with a customized HaloCode starter kit, self-guided activities in electronic and printed formats, and access to both live and pre-recorded training webinars.                                                                                                                           

Participating youth would need a Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux or Chromebook device with which to program their HaloCode unit and although reliable internet access would be beneficial and allow them to access resources and training online, they would only need it momentarily to download the offline version of the MakeBlock software or to install the MakeBlock app, because all resources (i.e., activity guide, videos) will also be made available in an offline version. Participating youth will also be invited to document and share their learning and successes throughout the challenge.

In order to have the equipment and resources delivered to students and in their hands before the end of May, registration must be complete by Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Please see #FIRSTCanadaCodeIt Challenge flyer for more information. 

Please see the attached #FIRSTCanadaCodeIt Challenge flyer for further information and for the registration form. Keep in mind, only the first 25 students to register will be able to avail of this opportunity. If you know of a student who might be interested, feel free to forward them the information.

#FIRSTCanadaCodeIt Challenge Flyer

Virtual Google Meet PL

The Technology Education Special Interest Council (TESIC) of the NLTA, is providing four virtual PL session the technical features and the practical applications of Google Meet throughout the week of May 11 - 15. Registration for these sessions is free. There is limited availability for each session so if you're no longer able to attend, please let us know.

Tuesday, May 12 (AM): Session 1

Tuesday, May 12 (PM): Session 2

Thursday, May 14 (AM): Session 3

Thursday, May 14 (AM): Session 4

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 5 with Melanie Forward

Episode 5 of TESIC's podcast, Let's Tech About It! is now available!
In this episode we talk to Melanie Forward, Teacher-Librarian at St. Teresa's School in St. John's.
She shares her experience using technology in the Library Learning Commons, and how it has worked for her school and students.

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 5 - Melanie Forward

TESIC Presents: Google Certified Educator Prize Draw

TESIC Presents: 

Google Certified Educator Prize Draw

Have you received your Level 1 or 2 GCE certification this school year? Plan on getting certified? Then this contest is for you! We'll be giving away fifteen $50 gift cards to some lucky NLTA members!

Contest Rules:

1. You must be a current NLTA member.
2. You must submit proof of your certification being attained during the 2019-2020 school year below.
3. If you receive both Level 1 and Level 2 during the 2019-2020 school year you must provide proof of both certifications to have your name entered twice for the prize draw.

Contest deadline: Wednesday, June 17th, 2020

To enter your name in the prize draw, please complete the following form: https://bit.ly/TESIC_GCE 

For more information on how to become certified, go to: https://edu.google.com/teacher-center/

Let's Tech About It! Episode 4 - Victoria Byrne

In episode 4 Jarratt Rose talk to Victoria Byrne, who is the Technology Education teacher at Corner Brook Regional High.

Let's Tech About It! Episode 4 - Victoria Byrne

Getting Unstuck, a Scratch Challenge for K-12 teachers!

Want to improve your Scratch skills? Or even learn how to use Scratch? TESIC is running Getting Unstuck, a 20 day Scratch Challenge! Starting May 1st a new challenge will be emailed to participants each weekday. Create something share it, and look at what other participants have made and comment on it!
There is a lot to learn. You can increase your own proficiency with Scratch, learn how to use blocks you haven't seen before, see what other people have made, and talk to them about how they use it within their teaching practice. There will be experienced Scratch users from TESIC who will be able to assist you as you work your way through the challenges too.

So register at the link below, and refresh your inbox on May 1st to see what the first challenge will be!

Getting Unstuck Registration

Learning Creative Learning

Learning Creative Learning is a 6 week free course that allows you Connect with educators from around the world and learn how to help children develop as creative thinkers, exploring design principles of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT.

It is a great course to complete, that doesn't require any real technological knowledge. The goal is to gain a greater understanding of creative learning, and how you and your students can actually learn to be creative.

Register for Learning Creative Learning

Let's Tech About It! Episode 3 with Ashleigh Hudson

A brand new episode of our Technology in Education Podcast is now available!

Megan Roome (TESIC President) talks to Ashleigh Hudson, a a Grade 4 EFI teacher at Vanier Elementary in St. John's about her adventures with Technology in the classroom.

You can listen to this episode at the link below, and check out some of our previous episodes as well.

Let's Tech About It! with Ashleigh Hudson

Get your Google Certified Educator Certificate!

This might be a great time to get your Google Educator Certificate! Google for Education Teacher Center has all the training and resources you will need to complete both the Educator Level 1 and Educator Level 2 certifications.

It is a great way to expand your knowledge of the G Suite ecosystem, and can really help your teaching practice.

The exam itself costs $10 to take, but you should allow roughly 3 hours to complete it without rushing.

Teach From Home: A Google Resource

Google has released a resource with lots of great tools for your learning. It contains really helpful information, including how-to's on how to teach with and without video calls, and help on using Google Classroom, Google Forms, and even how to do a Live Question and Answer session using Google Slides.
Take a look through, and use it to help you learn how to use these tools.

Teach From Home

Twitter Chat with Melissa Lee! Topic: 3D Printing

Join TESIC Vice President Melissa Lee on Thursday night at 8:30pm as she hosts the Brilliant Labs LIVE twitter chat! The topic is 3D printing & design.
Hop on twitter an make sure you are following @mmelee5  and the #BrilliantLabsLIVE to take part. You can follow along, respond to questions, and and ask your own.

TESIC recommends you listen to the Podcast "Ditch That Textbook!"

Ditch that Textbook is a podcast from Matt Miller, author of the book "Ditch That Textbook!" The goal is to help you teach with less reliance on the textbook through technology, creativity and innovation.
The podcast can be found on most major podcast channels. Each episode is short, usually 5-6 minutes and is usually packed with great information.

Ditch That Textbook Podcast


Thanks for the suggestion Megan Roome!

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 2 with Chelsea Morris

The second episode of TESIC's podcast, Let's Tech About It! is now available. Melissa Lee talks to Chelsea Morris, who teaches at Northern Lights Academy in Rigolet.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the link below.

Let's Tech About It! - Episode 2 with Chelsea Morris

TESIC recommends: Screencastify for making learning videos

Interested in making short videos for students to watch? Tutorials, or lessons, or how-to's? Screentastify offers a Chrome extension (A little tool you add to your Chrome browser) that lets you make videos up to 5 minutes in length. You can annotate the videos if you want, and publish them directly to Google Classroom, Youtube, or just download them if you need.

Screencastify 

3D Printing Workshops Cancelled

For those of you who have registered or were planning on attending the upcoming 3D printing workshops in St. John's (March 21), Corner Brook (March 28) and Gander (April 4), held by the NLTA Technology Education Special Interest Council and Brilliant Labs, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel these sessions as a precautionary measure due to the current situation with the COVID-19 virus. 

On behalf of TESIC, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. We look forward to bringing you more engaging learning experiences in the future.

Kind regards,
Megan Roome (TESIC President)

Follow Alice Keeler on Twitter!

TESIC recommends following Alice Keeler on Twitter. Alice Keeler is prolific tweeter, who loves Google. She often tweets about a number of Chrome Extensions, many that she has created herself to help make using Google Drive and Google Classroom easier to use and often adds new features.

You can find her on Twitter @alicekeeler. Thanks to Jennifer Hatcher, TESIC Member at Large from Central, for the suggestion.

Follow @alicekeeler


Follow @mshatcher_music

Faculty Of Engineering and Applied Science Open House - March 14, 2020

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside Memorial’s Engineering Building?  Check out the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science’s  Annual Open House this Saturday, March 14th  from 10am – 2pm in the S. J. Carew (Engineering) Building to find out!  This event is free and open to all members of the public.  Free parking will be available in lots 7 and 7A.

Episode 1 - Let's Tech About It! with Stephen Tizzard

It's the first episode of our podcast! Let's Tech About It! with Stephen Tizzard! Stephen talks about his teaching practices, using some familiar and some new tools in the classroom, and a great teaching philosophy.

You can find the the episode at the link below, or by searching "Let's Tech About It!" on most major podcast apps. (We aren't on Apple podcasts yet)

Episode 1 - Let's Tech About It! with Stephen Tizzard

Let's Tech About It! A new TESIC Podcast

TESIC has started a new podcast, Let's Tech About It! Episodes will be released every two weeks, starting soon. Each episode will focus on a teacher from across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and how they integrate technology into their teaching practice. You can hear about projects and practices that other teachers are using as well as some tips or tricks they might share.

Check out the link below to hear the intro as Megan Roome, Melissa Lee, Jarratt Rose and Michael Walter talk about their teaching practices with technology in our introductory episode.

Let's Tech About It! The First One

NLESD Teacher PL site for Coding and Maker Ed

Take a look at this great Professional Learning site created by Christine Elliot (Coding Itinerant)!



The site links to a variety of other sites created by teachers and program directors tha docs on coding and Maker Ed!

From the site:

This Maker Education and Coding professional learning (PL) site is intended for those wanted to incorporate more hands on learning and coding in the curriculum. This PL will center around what are some of the more popular resources being used in NL classrooms and some ideas on how to use them in the curriculum from K to 12. We realize that all teachers will have varying levels of familiarity with the concept of Maker Education and coding work. Please look around the site, investigate, participate in the blog questions (if you want) and make use of the resources that are best suited to your own learning needs.

 NLESD Coding and Maker Ed Site

3D Printing Meetup

Join the NLTA Technology Education Special Interest Council and Brilliant Labs once again in exploring 3D printing and classroom implications. This session is appropriate for any K-12 teacher, teaching in any subject area, with an interest in learning about 3D printing. The focus of the session will be for beginners. A more intermediate/advanced session will be offered at a later date.

This will be a great opportunity to learn more about using the Tinkercard program to design with your students and the in's and out's of slicing and printing using the program Cura. As well, you will have the opportunity to chat and connect with other educators interested in 3D printing and maker education!

Please bring along a laptop to use during the workshop. We will have some devices on hand if you're not able to bring one along. Snacks will be provided. Invite your friends!

We have limited space available so please let us know if plans change and you are unable to make it.

Where: District Conference Center 40 Strawberry Marsh Road, St. John's

When: Saturday, February 29, 2020, from 10:00AM - 1:00PM

If you have any questions, please contact Megan Roome (TESIC president) - meganroome@nlesd.ca

Scratch Educator Meetup #2

The second Newfoundland Scratch Educator Meetup in St. John's on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2019 at NLESD District Conference Centre! The meetup is free and there will be snacks provided by the NLTA Technology Education Special Interest Council!

There will have 4 Meetups throughout the school year, you are welcome to join us at one or all!

*What is a Scratch Educator Meetup?*
A Scratch Educator Meetup is a gathering of Scratch Educators who want to learn with and from each other, sharing their ideas and strategies for supporting computational creativity in all its forms
*What will we be doing at the meetup? *
1. We start with networking, getting to know fellow attendees and sharing what people want to explore during the meetup.
2. We collaboratively decide how to structure our learning and then form small groups based on our different interests. Maybe you want to have a discussion about classroom strategies or get more practice with Scratch—or something else entirely. Feel free to move between groups if the session that you're in isn't working for you.
3. We gather as a whole group for lunch and group sharing. You might pose a question to discuss with the group, or share something from your classroom. This is a great time to inspire and be inspired.
Learn more about Meetups at https://meetups.gse.harvard.edu/learn.html

Who should come?
Open to ALL K-12 educators in ANY subject area with any experience level.

What should I bring?
Curiosity. And a laptop (Chrome, Windows or Mac)
(We will have some devices on hand if you need one)

If you're new to Scratch, you can check it out at http://scratch.mit.edu
Create your own free Scratch Teacher Account at https://scratch.mit.edu/educators#teacher-accounts

We look forward to meeting up with you!