Making your teaching more student centered

As you thinking about back to school ( hopefully) , we can be strive to have our classes and lessons more student/learner centered. In my reading, I have come across some ideas that may help,
  1. Explain to students why you are doing things. Share with them why you are asking the students to learn a skill, perform a task,or complete an activity. Emphasize why it is important and worthwhile.

2. Eliminate should or ought. Appeal to the students/ learning. Appeal to the learners autonomy / or inner motivation. Appeal to their interests and passions instead of using controlling language.
Change your language to incorporate the student ideas. This will take time and effort but will result in better communication.

3. Do less in a lesson!  Students can only process a limited amount of information at once. So plan on fewer  learning outcomes. And then provide more active practice on the learning outcome. Give more time to each essential outcome.

Do you know The Fussy Librarian?

  I only just discovered this and I am thinking it will be a great source for eBooks. Best part of this - the eBooks are free ( or very low cost)!!
  If you go to the Fussy Librarian  (  https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/   )   and sign up ,  you can get a daily email with the latest  free eBooks for your Kindle, Nook, Apple or google play reader!
  There are listings for both adult, children/ middle grades and non-fiction categorizes.
Each listing shows the cover and also gives a short summary/ synopsis of the work.,
   You can get the full listing or you can customize it to the genres you like to read. If you don't want daily emails , you can tell it when  and how often you want to receive the listing of free eBooks.
Check this out if you like to do eBooks! The site also as articles for readers and authors that are informative and interesting.

Using Common Sense Media

Check out Common Sense  media for your remote  learning!  Or just to use for your informational /Digital literacy classes!   There is a lot of resources for librarians and tech teachers .

 First of all they have a new guide to Google  Classroom.

 There are Classroom Management   articles:
      How to find great resources.
     Guide to teaching  with Technology
     Classroom Management Tools
      Kick off the school year with interest driven projects

 Under ED Tech
      Using video for Project Based learning
       Using Video to collaborate on Project Based learning

Finally: Basic tools for Virtual and Distance learning

I  hope some of these will be helpful for you!

Brain Pop- site for remote learning/ Google Classroom

  Brain Pop is another tool I have used to add to my Google classroom. There are many activities lessons, videos, games, and quizzes that go along with my 7th grade Information Literacy Curriculum
  If you have this available in your district , I urge you to check it out and see what you can use for your remote learning.
  Some of the lessons I have used are the following:

Tech: Cyber bulling, digital animation, social media

Computer Sciences: 3d printing,computer history, Internet, hackers

Digital Citizenship: I have used most of these units which are excellent
.
English: Famous authors & books, Study & Reading Skills, Writing / Book reports ,Citing sources, copyright , fact & opinion

Each unit has a video,a quiz, related readings, and other activities.

Brain Pop is a very helpful source that will engage students and support teaching and leaning,
There is also a BrainPop Jr for students in grades k- 3.

NSteens.org- add to your Google Classroom for Remote learning

   https://www.nsteens.org/ is another site I use to teach Middle school  internet safety and digital  literacy.There are engaging videos that students will be able to watch and learn  about many facets of internet safety. Six Degrees of Information and Friend or Fake are ones I usually begin with. A few more to consider are cyber bullying and Meeting on line.

  There are games for students to 'play'. I like the Website Warrior one for a beginning lesson
Quizzes are also included-What type of Internet user are you? is always included on my Google Classroom.

  Students also like to look at the comics and the bios of the characters in the videos and games.

Typing.com/ Using Google Classroom for remote learning

  On my Google Classroom platform, I also have some typing lessons, games, and activities  that I assign to the student.  I want them to type correctly and this gives them practice.
  Typing.com is one site that I use. There are  videos, lessons, and typing tests. With three lessons, the students can advance quickly.
   There is keyboarding practice with reinforcement and stories for students to type. You can link this up to your google classroom which makes life really easy.
   There are some new additions that are also exciting.  There is a Tech readiness section  career prep. and Coding Essentials. This brings many great lessons to you already prepped and can be added to Google Classroom.

Common Sense Media/ Using Google Classroom for remote learning

   If you are using Google Classroom for your online learning platform, there are a lot of assignments, activities , and games that you can add for your students.

  For instance, thank about what you want student to do/learn, or what skills you want them to master.  I have used Common Sense Media for digital literacy for middle school because that is what I was asked to concentrate on media literacy and  information skills.

   When   you sign in as an educator you get access to free lessons with lots of options. I have used parts of this and added assignments to the google classroom.  There are videos, games, lesson slides, and work/ thinking sheets. You can them track student use and do grades if you need to.

  Another time I will discuss some other items that I have used in my Google Classroom,
What do you have on your Google classroom? How do  you use yours?