Mrs. Stevens and Mrs. Kallas use http://www.wix.com, http://www.weebly.com & http://wikispaces.net as resources for students to create authentic, professional, digital portfolios to share with mentor teachers, prospective colleges and future employers. Students choose the digital tool that they want to use.

Mrs. Bland's 8th grade Pre-AP ELA class meets during Zero Hour, and their work is a blended mix of collaborative learning in face-to-face meetings and flipped learning through a variety of digital tools anchored in her on-line Google Classroom. In these first two weeks, her students have learned the structures of the class and have become familiar with the Google Classroom features.

Haltom High School's Social Studies Department Chair, Gary Edge, is seen here introducing his AP Human Geography students to their new online textbook. Online textbooks can enhance and extend the learner's experience in class and at home. An online textbook can also be a terrific tool for teachers that are interested in flipping or blending their instruction. "The online textbook is embedded with maps, videos and other interactive media, which allows students access to many good resources in one location," explained Edge.

Click here to take our quiz.

Instagrok is a free tool that enables students to create interactive concept maps. The maps are customizable and easy to share. Students make the connections and Instagrok makes the connections visual.

Flocabulary is a vocabulary resource that utilizes music and beats to help students learn words and concepts. BISD librarians are the site coordinators for district-used Flocabulary accounts. Teachers can set up classes and students through a dashboard and assign quizzes over content area vocabulary.

Connected teachers find other connected teachers on the internet and social media to be able to collaborate and learn about new best practices in education. There are numerous resources-blogs, chats, websites- to follow or subscribe to, and we will spotlight one once a month in this brief. Check it out. If you find it useful, consider following or subscribing to get updated information from that person or group in your in-box daily or weekly. When you come across great resources, please shoot your DLS an e-mail with the information.

This week's "connected" resource...

Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning.

Hopefully, you had some relaxing downtime over the three-day weekend. As you get settled into your new schedule, please remember that the Secondary Digital Learning Team is eager to help plan, train, or support any of your digital learning activities with students.

Would you like help getting kids signed into their new Google accounts?

Want to review sharing folders in Google Drive with your PLC?

Would you like to explore different types of digital formative assessments?

Please contact us with any questions or to schedule a visit. We are here for you!