Mrs Hahn's Library Connections

  Common Sense Media gives CodeMonkey five stars and says that it is "a great intro to coding that, with solid teacher support, gets students using real programming languages." With this week's focus on maker activities and makerspaces, I wanted to promote a digital tool that wasn't just "arts and crafts". With the new implementation on the Computer Science standards in New York State, CodeMonkey teaches students how to program and understand algorithms in a fun and interactive way. The many varied activities include both block coding as well as text coding. For teachers, each game-like platform includes lesson plans and implementation strategies, with scaffolding and supports. CodeMonkey is Ed Law 2D compliant if teachers want to set up students with an account for monitoring and grading purposes, but students can also play in "guest" mode without creating an account or saving progress.  CodeMonkey is perfect for students in grades K-8, with algo

  This week's recommended digital tool is Night Sky. This is an AR app that works on iOS devices. When the app is opened, it shows stars, planets, constellations, and even satellites.  Teacher users have called it "a planetarium in your pocket"! The best part is that it doesn't have to be night time to use it--you can can just point the camera aperture anywhere and it shows the stars and planets in that direction. Students can even point at the ground and it will show items on the other side of the world!  This app is a great AR option for students, with many educational benefits. There is a premium option but the free version is very robust with so many opportunities to see space that I don't think it's necessary for the average educator. So many students don't see a clear night sky, and this tool provides the expanse of space without the interference of light pollution. Perfect for content lessons or the student who just loves space and can't get eno

  After reading so much about social media this week, and embracing the power to use it for good, I went looking for a tool that could connect people. I found this great messaging tool, Talking Points . Many school districts have a parenting messaging platform, but some do not, and in districts with diverse families and languages, this tool is such a value add for communicating with students and families.  Common Sense Media rates this application as a 5 out of 5 stars, and AASL promoted it as a top web tool in 2020. It includes simple messaging as well as polling and information gathering in order to serve students and families best as an educator.  There are several translating services available (google translate has come so far in the past few years), but this tool provides onboarding learning and tech support, templates, and roster integration, with privacy features. You simply type your message in your native language, and the receiver sees the message in their native language. I

  In my recent searching for free (or mostly free) and not copyrighted materials for use by teachers and librarians, I came across the website, Education.com . And I quickly lost an hour of my life diving into all the resources that they offer... The first thing I noticed was that I could see all resources, even without an account. I could really tell that this was a place that could help my teaching, and not just another sales job. In order to download lesson plans, worksheets, or other activities, you will need an account. And if you want unlimited downloads or the option to enroll your students in the digital features, you will need a paid subscription.  BUT The free offerings are pretty great. There are resources for PreK-grade 8.  There are great reading passages, writing prompts, math worksheets, coloring pages. (you won't be breaking any copyright laws by using these!) There are complete lesson plans if you are looking to change up your teaching or maybe even just looking fo