Digital Learning Resources

Highlights and Resources from GSD Tech Meet, May 12, 2020

May 2020Josh WhitingLeave a Comment

Celebrating Students

Granite teachers joined in a video and chat meet to share ideas and learn from one another in the final session of our Spring 2020 GSD Tech Meet series. This meet focused on ways to celebrate students and provide closure at the end of the year in a distance learning environment. Below we share a recording of the live meet, as well as ideas, links, and resources shared by participants in the session.

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Highlights and Resources from GSD Tech Meet, May 5, 2020

May 2020Josh WhitingLeave a Comment

Student Choice

In our third GSD Tech Meet, held on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Granite teachers joined up in a video and chat meet to share ideas and learn from one another. This week’s discussion focused on providing student choice and personalization during distance and face-to-face learning. Below we share a recording of the live meet, as well as ideas, links, and resources shared by participants in the session.

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Highlights and Resources from GSD Tech Meet, April 28, 2020

April 2020Josh Whiting

Ways to Increase Student Participation in Distance Learning

We held our second GSD Tech Meet on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, with more great discussions and sharing of ideas between Granite teachers. The discussion focused on techniques and ideas for increasing students’ engagement and participation in distance learning.

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Aaron Kammerman’s Video Ideas

April 2020Josh Whiting

Aaron Kammerman, School Technology Specialist at Hartvigsen School and The Jones Center, has been busy these last few weeks creating instructional videos for his teachers, as well as encouraging his teachers to make videos for their students. He recently compiled this inspiring list of ideas and reasons for teachers to make videos, and we are excited to share it with you!

Yesterday, I created a selfie video for my teachers, praising them for their efforts and encouraging them to reach out to me for continued support. In that video I made a passionate plea that they make MORE VIDEOS. I explained that kids are not missing out on the CONTENT as much as they are missing the CONTACT.

I followed up with this list of video ideas. My list of ideas is geared toward special ed students, but you get the idea. In case this is helpful, I pass it along to you!

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Highlights from the First GSD Tech Meet, April 21, 2020

April 2020Josh Whiting

Over 100 Granite educators joined us for our first GSD Tech Meet, a live virtual meeting for teachers held in Google Meet on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. The meet was facilitated by Kacie O’Maley, School Technology Specialist at Upland Terrace Elementary and an incoming Team Leader for our department next year. In this first session, Kacie introduced the meet as a collaborative space for teachers to connect and share with one another, putting forth discussion questions that encouraged participants to share successes, ideas, and solutions they have developed during the distance learning period.

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Distance Learning Resources in Granite School District

March 2020Josh Whiting

During school dismissal and this period of distance learning, Granite School District and the Educational Technology Department have created two centralized resources to provide students, families, and teachers with access to essential digital tools, best practices, and resources for distance teaching and learning.

distancelearning.graniteschools.org

This website is intended to help students and families access digital tools that Granite teachers may be using during school dismissal. Your student’s teacher will provide you with detailed information about accessing learning during this time. Please reach out to individual teachers with questions.

distanceteaching.graniteschools.org

You can find all updates from Granite School District on school dismissal and COVID-19 at this link: https://www.graniteschools.org/blog/category/covid-19/

Digital Learning Day 2020

February 2020Josh Whiting

In the Granite Educational Technology Department we celebrate learning with technology every day, but today, February 27, 2020, is Digital Learning Day! This day was created to give educators nationwide a platform to showcase the innovative teaching and learning happening in their classrooms and libraries.

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Teacher Spotlight: Kim Gardner, Upland Terrace Elementary

February 2020Josh Whiting

Kim Gardner, fifth grade teacher at Upland Terrace Elementary, and Kacie O’Maley, school technology specialist, were featured in the most recent episode of UEN’s PDTV web video series. The episode focuses on the innovative ways their students are exploring and creating worlds in Minecraft EDU to engage in social studies core curriculum and showcase their learning. Watch it below!

Granite Sora Circulation Highlights | 2019-2020 Midyear

January 2020Josh Whiting

Granite students and staff have checked out nearly 65,000 ebooks and audiobooks since the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year! This is according to the statistics shown on the Granite School District Sora Usage Site kept by Alyssa Carraway, Administrative Secretary in the Educational Technology Department. This infographic highlights some of the statistics collected as of the end of December 2019.

Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week, 2019

December 2019Josh Whiting

Computer Science Education Week is December 9-15, 2019. During the week many educators use Hour of Code activities to introduce students to computer science. These activities are fun and easy to run, and can be done not only in a classroom but as an after school or library activity, or at home. There are activities for any kind of computer or device, as well as analog “no-device” activities that teach coding and computational concepts

You can learn more about how to run an Hour of Code activity in these simple how-to guides:

How to teach one Hour of Code with your class (for teachers)

How to do an Hour of Code with your child (for parents)

You can also skip right to the collection of suggested activities by clicking on the image below, or visiting https://hourofcode.com/us/learn