Ozobot - the cutest robots that your kids will love

I was so excited when Ozobot reached out to me asking if I wanted to receive one of their little robots to review.  I immediately said yes and was so excited when it came.  If you aren't familiar with Ozobot, it is a small robot that either be programmed with a block based code or can read colored codes on paper to direct the robot.

I work with ninth graders so I figured that we would use the the block based coding program as that would be more of a challenge for them.  The program has a teacher section with lesson plans so I picked one that I thought would be a good one for my students.  It was called Slot Car Race and directed students to code the bot to go around a track 5 times with the light on the top being a different color each time.  It seems easy, but students needed to add in some logic and repeat blocks.  The first time I did this, it went well but it's a challenge when I only had one bot.  My students and I loved the Ozobot so much that I immediately started looking for a way to get a classroom set.  As luck would have it my local utilities company offered a STEM grant.  I applied and was one of the recipients.  I was able to get a classroom set of 12!

Now that it's a new school year I can't wait to expand the use of these bots in my classroom.  I have seen so many things on Instagram on how to use them and I just need to find the time to look through it all (story of a teacher's life right?).  I also started a robotics club this year and I hope that this will be a great introduction for my students and get them interested in joining the club to expand their knowledge of robots.

What type of robots do you use in your classroom or what would you like to get? 

Customize your textbook

I have not found a textbook that includes all of the information that I want and leaves out the information that I don't.  I started using CK12 Flexbooks a while ago and love it because I can make the textbook my own.  Plus there are videos that can be added in,  Take a look at the video below on how to customize these online textbooks.

Asteroid Blasting Review Game

Kupiter is a study website that looks like fun for your students.  It's great to review vocabulary and other content.  Students shoot at letter to spell the word to complete the sentence or match the definition. Students get points based on how accurately and quickly questions are answered.  One of the things I like most is that it works on all devices, so students don't need to download an app.  You can create a class so that there is a leaderboard.  This, along with the explosions and powerups, can really be a motivator for students.

You can create your own game on Kupiter by writing questions from scratch or by importing them from Quizlet or an Excel spreadsheet. Game links can be shared via social media and Google Classroom.

Watch the short video below for a demonstration of how the game is played.

What review games do you use in your classroom? 

My favorite free online test, quiz and worksheet generator

Take a look at this walk through of Problem - Attic and how to use it.  You will find banks of questions from many state assessments as well as national tests. 

Free Online Textbooks for College level and AP classes

OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University, and its mission is to give every student the tools they need to be successful in the classroom.  In short, it's free online textbooks for the college and AP level.  Many colleges have already started using these resources as a way to help students save money.  Now high schools have starting catching on and have begun using them as well.  You may be familiar with CK12 for high school level textbooks; this is just the next step up. 

OpenStax gives instructor resources such as PowerPoint slides, solution manual, sample syllabus, and assessment banks.  In addition, it also offers connections to various technology resources.  There are a few options to read these books.  You can read them online, download them as a PDF or even send them to your Kindle.  They also offer an option to order print copies from Amazon or buy them in bulk if you want.

Topics include:

Math

• Prealgebra
• Algebra (Elementary, Intermediate and College)
• Trigonometry
• Precalculus
• Calculus
• Statistics

Science

• Anatomy and Physiology
• Astronomy
• Biology
• Concepts of Biology
• Microbiology
• Chemistry
• Physics

Social studies

• American Government
• Economics (principles, macro and micro)
• Psychology
• Sociology
• US History

Buisness

• Intro to Business
• Business Ethics
• Principles of Accounting

AP

• Biology
• College Physics
• Principles of Macroeconomics
• Principles for Microeconomics

How to Split Text into Columns in Google Docs

The Google Suite is great for its ease of use, but sometimes it's missing features that you are used to from the desktop programs that you are used to.  One of these things is taking text that is in one column and splitting it into many.  The classic example of this is when you have first and last names in one column and you want to split it into two.  Take note that anything in the columns to the right could get written over if the text goes into those columns.

To split text what you need to do is: highlight the column with the the text to split, click on the Data menu and then split text to columns.  You will now be prompted to choose the separator.  This is the trigger that Google Sheets will use to know when to split the text. Choose the one that applies to your data and your data will be split.  How easy is that?!

If you are more of a visual person, take a look at the video below.

Create informal assessments and homework aligned to your standards

update: OpenEd is now ACT Academy 

OpenEd is a free website that contains educational videos, games and digital tools for classroom use.  You can search by topic, grade level, standard or keyword.  Once you find a resource you like you can favorite it, assign it to your students, add it to your Google Classroom or clone it so you can edit it.  If you want to assign it your students both you and your students will need accounts.  If you are a Google school there is Google single sign on, otherwise students will need to go through the process of creating an account.  The advantage to using the OpenEd platform to assign the activity is that there are premade questions that go along with the resources.

I tend to be a control freak and like to make my own questions (or at least edit the ones there).  I would probably create my own form where I embed the resource and then ask the questions that I want.  The advantage to this is that now I can distribute the form in the same method I share other resources with my students and they don't need to create an account on a new website.  While it is nice that OpenEd can keep track of who has mastered the assignments you give, you can also just do that yourself in the spreadsheet that you get as a result of the form.

For me I like it better as a place to search for resources and then put them on my own platform.  What would your preference be?