But it doesn’t just benefit students — talking about current events in the classroom can also be advantageous to teachers. Current events can cover a wide range of subjects for holistic, cross-curricular teaching, and are an engaging way to teach media literacy skills. The discussion of current events is ideal for debates, cooperative learning, authentic writing assignments, and many more purposeful activities.

Plus, teaching with real-world events provides the opportunity to teach standards while helping kids discern between fact and opinion and detect bias — skills they need now more than ever.

So, where do you find high-quality articles and resources? How do you put together lessons on current events without spending hours distilling topics from the 24/7 news cycle? The Week’s Classroom Education Program is designed to help solve these problems for secondary teachers.

The Week is an independent news source that curates multiple perspectives on the news in politics, science, government, business, and more. I’ve been a subscriber to The Week for five years, and it’s the primary way I consume news. I don’t have to keep up with everything that’s happening or watch hours of television: I rely on a weekly summary (a new edition is released each Friday) to tell me the most important things that are happening in the world.

The Week now has a Classroom Education Program, which is designed to make it easy for educators to bring the discussion of current events into the classroom by providing them with the magazine and a matching Lesson Guide.

When you subscribe to the classroom program, you have the option to pick a physical print copy of the magazine and the guide, or a digital one. The benefit of going digital is that students can view the magazine on computers or their own mobile devices.

All of The Week’s magazines have beautiful covers featuring caricature drawings that serve as commentary on today’s most pressing issues. These will, without a doubt, kick students’ analytical skills into high gear right away.

Inside, you’ll find the magazine is divided into four parts: The Main Stories, Controversy of the Week, Talking Points, and a collection of news focusing on the arts, health, business, and other subjects.

I love that the news articles are clear and concise, making it quick and easy for students to read and digest. Most are just a few short paragraphs, and at times, even just a single paragraph, so you won’t have a difficult time fitting the discussion into your daily schedule.

The news reporting is also very balanced in that the facts of the events are clearly stated, followed by the take of the editorials on the news, and then the opinions of columnists. This specific format gives students a more comprehensive view of the current event, including how various journalists interpreted the facts.

The magazine also takes time to explain controversies and highlights relevant news and facts, which makes it easier for students to generate informed opinions.

The topics aren’t all super heavy or political — The Week also features humorous stories and snippets of good news from across the U.S.

The classroom subscription includes a Lesson Guide for the teachers. Each guide is complete with questions and engagement ideas for the cover image and every article inside the magazine. A few main activities are defined within the guide, and they come with a list of vocabulary to explore, discussion starters, classroom instructions, and a follow-up activity. You can view all of the available lesson guides here.

The Week also provides educators with the Teachers’ Reference Guide. This guide contains even more detailed instructions on how high school teachers can use the magazine in the classroom and explains how each feature fits into the curriculum. You will also find a list of evergreen activities, which are activities that can be used for every issue of The Week.

The Week has a special offer for teachers: you can subscribe to The Week’s Classroom Education Program for just $1.09 per copy here.

That’s a savings of over 78% off the single copy price! The subscription includes access to both the print and digital editions of the magazine, the lesson guides, and a free teacher’s subscription.

Disclosure: The Week has provided compensation to me for helping to spread the word about their resources. I only recommend products that I truly believe in. I am a longtime paying subscriber for The Week and truly stand behind their classroom resources.

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I remember many years ago when the amazing teacher next door to me was feeling really discouraged. She was actually doing a lot better than she gave herself credit for, but as a new-ish teacher, she felt overwhelmed with all the things she still had to learn about how to best support her students.

On a whim, I decided to put a sticky note in her mailbox that said, “I see the work you’re putting in, and it’s paying off for your kids. I promise.”

That choice took just a moment of my time, but she and I are friends to this day, and she STILL talks about how that note gave her the confidence and motivation to keep going. She laminated that note, and it hangs on her bulletin board to remind her she’s appreciated and is making a difference.

If something as simple as writing a note to a colleague can be that encouraging…imagine what could happen if you spent just a few moments recognizing him or her in a contest for a massive amount of free tech for the classroom.

If you know an extraordinary colleague who inspires you and others, here’s your chance to help him or her expand that impact even further…and you can BOTH win big!

SMART Tech, the creator of the SMART Board and SMART Learning Suite, is launching their Give Greatness contest. The contest aims to recognize inspiring educators who go to great lengths to help their students, families, and fellow educators, and who make a real difference in the community.

To nominate someone from your school, all you have to do is to go to the Give Greatness contest page share his or her story in 250-500 words.

If chosen for the grand prize, the winning teacher AND the person who nominated him or her will have a full SMART Tech classroom technology package worth over $40,000 installed in their classrooms.

The package includes a:

• 30 Chromebooks
• SMART Board interactive display
• SMART Learning Suite software subscription
• SMART Document Camera
• SMART audio classroom amplification
• SMART training and implementation support to help you fully utilize the system

Enter no later than August 31st. The grand prize winner will be announced in November 2018.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to nominate a fellow educator. The nomination alone can be a tremendous encouragement, and if s/he wins, you can BOTH achieve more breakthroughs in the classroom and make an even bigger impact through your work.

The post Give Greatness Contest: Win $40,000 worth of classroom tech from SMART appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Photography is such a great medium for young people to express their creativity, whether it’s for the yearbook, social media, or a personal project. And now, the Getty Museum has a new platform for supporting kids in expressing themselves.

The Getty Museum recently launched Unshuttered, an online community created for young photographers. Unshuttered is specifically designed for teens who are interested in exploring photography as a hobby or a profession.

The community at Unshuttered provides power tips to help young people take their photos to another level, and tell their stories in a compelling way that is unique to them.

Take, for instance, Josh, who uses candid photography to correct the misrepresentation of young black people in the media. He hopes that through his photographs, he can show how he and his peers are truly alike on a day-to-day basis, while also highlighting their individuality. Check out Josh’s video here:

Here’s a photography project by a student named Melissa. Through her images, she wants to destroy the belief that women, especially women of color, don’t do real work. So, she captures her subjects from different perspectives in their working environment, drawing the audience into understanding the value of what they do.

Every week, Getty Unshuttered features a challenge to develop young photographers’ artistry. Here are some of the challenges posted in recent weeks:

• Light
• Perspective
• Color

The weekly challenges and candid photography tips will help them improve their craft while connecting with other students who are interested in photography, too.

Encourage the shutterbugs in your class to go to unshuttered.org or download the app for free in the App Store, and start building their portfolio online. 

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by WeAreTeachers and Getty Unshuttered.

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What if you could have students’ reading targets automatically set up; easily generate a list of “just right” books that are aligned with students’ individual interests; and get rid of reading logs at the same time?

That’s exactly what MoxieReader is designed to help you do.

MoxieReader is a platform designed to promote independent student reading through personalized reading recommendations. It helps teachers save time by providing tracking and accountability tools. I’ll walk you through these various benefits and show you how to get started here.

How MoxieReader encourages students to read more

There are 3 main ways MoxieReader will get your students excited to read:

1. It creates a team-based game for students complete. There are reading goals and fun activities to propel students’ reading progress forward.
2. It provides a social space where students can share book ratings and reviews. One of the most powerful ways to inspire kids to read is to provide spaces for them to share their opinions, find out what their friends are reading, and have conversations about books. All of those processes are streamlined with MoxieReader.
3. It provides highly personalized reading recommendations based on books students have read in the past and how well they’ve read them. This means students are hearing about books that are similar to those they’ve already enjoyed (similar to how Amazon recommends other book titles based on past purchases), AND it means those books are likely to be at a comfortable level of difficulty for the student.

How students are empowered to work toward reading goals

MoxieReader is data-driven, so its book recommendations are never far off the mark when it comes to students’ reading levels and interests. Its algorithm sets realistic and clear goals for how many books a student should read in order to reach proficiency at his or her level.

Think of MoxieReader as the fitness tracker for reading: it tracks students’ reading habits and progress as they use the app, and creates new goals as higher levels are reached.

Another great thing about their recommendation system is that it doesn’t take away students’ freedom to choose books THEY want to read. MoxieReader suggests a collection of books that are a good fit, but ultimately, students take their pick!

How MoxieReader helps you track student progress 

You’ll start with the basic process of signing up, logging in, adding students to the system (through a simple class list upload), and designating your reading groups. You will then be able to monitor the entire class’ progress through your Dashboard. (If you want to get a feel for how MoxieReader works before inputting your own class info, use the demo class option.)

Here in the dashboard, students’ progress can be viewed either as a whole classroom or individually.

The Dashboard has a section called Logs where there is a weekly view of books each student has read previously, books they are currently reading, and a visual chart that gauges progress (or prompts action from the teacher.)

Under Reading Challenges, the teacher gets to see individual reading levels, target reading levels, pages logged, activity points, book points, and reading group performance.

Then there’s the Projections section, which shows student and group progress in visual charts with the added function of easy sharing so that you can show kids their progress.

How students use MoxieReader

Download the Moxiereader app on student devices (it’s available for the iPhone, iPad, and Android.)

Using the app, students will scan the book they are reading (or manually log books they have read in the past) to create a digital reading record. This is how the system begins to monitor their progress and offer book recommendations.

Students can then use the app to participate in discussions and reading challenges with their peers, and share what they are reading. You can learn more in the video below:

How MoxieReader makes reading support easier for teachers

The MoxieReader platform has a massive database of books, which means it likely includes the books that are already in your classroom and in students’ homes. No more searching out obscure titles to try to fit with a reading tool you’re using. MoxieReader works with whatever your students are already reading and the books they have ready access to.

For peer support and fresh ideas for implementing independent reading programs, you can interact with fellow teachers in the MoxieReader Teacher Innovator Facebook group.

You can also access reading reflection activities which help boost comprehension and guide students through their reading journey. These printables can be found in MoxieReader’s Teacher Resource Center. The pages I’ve seen are kid-friendly and attractive, while also focusing on higher-order thinking tasks. Here’s an example:

How much MoxieReader costs

You can see all pricing options here. A 14-day free trial is offered for Teacher Accounts so that you can see if MoxieReader is a really good fit for you and your students. Ready to try it? You can create a demo account for free.

If you like what you see, the regular cost is $63/year. MoxieReader is offering a 40% discount on the annual subscription with the code MOXIE40. That’s around $38 for an entire year’s worth of progress monitoring–an outstanding value, when you consider the amount of time it saves you in collecting and analyzing kids’ reading progress data on your own.

There are also school and district pricing options, so you can see if PTA funds or other school money could be used to cover subscriptions for you and your team.

Disclosure: MoxieReader has compensated me through SyndicateAds for helping them to spread the word about their awesome resources. All opinions in this post are mine, and I only write about products that I would use and recommend to other educators.

The post Empower kids to find “just right” books with MoxieReader appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

However, if you’ve tried the peer review process with your students, you know the challenges are numerous. How do you prevent one student from basically doing the other student’s work for him/her? How do you hold kids accountable for their comments, and make sure feedback is honest, helpful, accurate, and constructive?

Enter Peergrade, a FREE peer assessment platform designed to simplify the entire peer review process. 

The Peergrade platform anonymously distributes all students’ work so they can leave feedback for one another without biases or interpersonal issues getting in the way. The feedback left by the anonymous reviewer is then sent back to the student who created the assignment so s/he can re-examine the work and make edits.

And here’s the really awesome part–the peer review process is recorded, giving teachers valuable reports and insight into the quality of work and feedback the class is producing.

On top of helping teachers save time on giving feedback, Peergrade also teaches students the art of giving constructive feedback to one another. The Peergrade process promotes critical thinking and pushes students to dig deeper into the assignment.  Here’s some feedback from teachers who have used Peergrade so you can read in their own words how their students’ learning has been positively impacted.

So how does it work? First, the teacher creates an assignment partnered with a specific feedback criteria. Once these are set, the teacher opens the assignment for submission.

After students submit their work, the Peergrade system collects and distributes all the submissions across the class roster so each student has a paper to review. The distribution is completely anonymous so nobody knows whose work they’re grading.

The students then go over their anonymous classmate’s work and leave feedback based on the specific criteria the teacher determined previously. When the feedback process has finished, everybody gets their own work back with the feedback their peers have left.

The entire process is recorded and summarized in organized reports that the teacher can view to help with assessment. The reports generated by Peergrade provide the teacher with insight into the kind of feedback students leave for each other, the amount of time they spent constructing feedback, which parts of the assignment students struggled with, and much more.

The feedback left by peers is already incredibly helpful to students in assessing their own work and improving their work process. But you can take it a step further with Peergrade by asking students to leave feedback on the feedback given to them. This teaches students what good feedback looks like and also helps teachers discern the types of feedback that are actually helpful to students.

Want to check it out for yourself?

Create your free Peergrade account here.

Disclosure: Peergrade has compensated me via Syndicate Ads for helping to spread the word about their awesome resources. I only recommend products on my blog that I truly believe in and would use myself in the classroom. 

The post Peergrade: a free tool for facilitating peer feedback on student work appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Sown to Grow is a goal-setting and reflection tool that promotes growth mindset and reinforces student agency. Its primary objective is to help students build learning skills through monitoring their own progress and reflecting on which learning strategies work best.

Within the platform are features that allow students to practice three steps that are central to shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset:

1. Set goals for themselves
2. Track their performance
3. Reflect on the strategies they used and new ones they want to try

This 3 step cycle guides students in the right direction with evidence-based learning strategies. Students can view a summary of their performance and reflections on the “Reflections” page to see their progress and the learning strategies they’ve tried.

How do teachers set it up?

Teachers begin by setting up their classroom and first learning cycle. This means they determine what the learning objectives for a lesson are, how often students will reflect, and which activities they will work on.

Multiple cycles can be created and teachers have full control over the process. A typical structure is a weekly cycle where goals are set on Monday, scores for activities are entered during the week, and reflection takes place on Friday. Cycles can also be set up to match a unit.

Here’s what you can see from the teacher view when cycles are set up (click here to see more views from where Sown to Grow was used in a 6th grade classroom):

Sown to Grow has made creating the cycle simple for teachers: it takes only minutes to set up. They have also fully integrated the platform with Google Classroom. This makes the process even easier, as teachers can transfer their rosters and assignments directly to Sown to Grow from Google Classroom.

How does the student learning journey work?

Once the classroom and cycle are set up, students start their learning journey with a self-check where they find out what the learning objective is and express how they feel about it by clicking on a range of emoticons, much like on Facebook.

Then they begin with completing the activities the teacher has set up. As they go along, they rate their own performance and enter their own scores on the web-based app. Sown to Grow designed the platform to work this way to reinforce student ownership of learning.

You can see the student learning cycle in action with this second grade example: 

After giving themselves a score, the self-reflection step begins. Again, students click on an emoticon that expresses how they feel about their own performance and write what they can do to perform better next time. If they are satisfied with their performance, they reflect in writing on how they achieved success.

This step shows students that learning is a process and helps them think about which strategies they used and the effectiveness of each. For support in articulating the strategies, students can click on Sown to Grow’s sample strategies (this also minimizes the amount of times students spend typing them out):

How does Sown to Grow track and report student learning?

The data gathered from students’ reflections is a great guide for shaping future lessons and can be used as evidence of learning during student-led conferences.

When the teacher logs in to the platform, s/he can see all students’ reflections and can leave individual feedback on strategies used. The teacher’s view is divided into 3 parts: Cycle Summary, Activity Scores, and the Insights Page.

Insights: This is where teachers can see how the class feels about the activities and their progress. The page is designed to help teachers design better lessons in the future and offer help to students who feel left behind or frustrated.

Cycle Summary: This is where teachers can view students’ progress and leave feedback on strategies (see the screenshot above). The entire class’ typed reflections are visible from this single page so responding with feedback is quick and easy and requires no extra clicking around.

Activity Scores: This is a more detailed view of students’ performance on the activities. The columns are easily manipulated which makes data-based grouping easy. (You can see a screenshot of this view below.)

Want to learn more? You can read about the impact of Sown to Grow on a school district who used the platform here. Or, visit the Sown to Grow  site to set up your free account and get started.

Disclosure: Sown to Grow has compensated me via Syndicate Ads for helping to spread the word about their awesome resources. I only recommend products on my blog that I truly believe in and would use myself in the classroom. 

The post Helping students set goals and reflect on progress with Sown to Grow appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Dry erase markers are a back-to-school staple for teachers. Here are some creative ways to get the most out of your markers as the new school year begins:

1. Use the new EXPO markers that have see-through ink barrels

These are my FAVORITE markers because you don’t have to wonder when they’re going to run out of ink: there are lines to indicate Full, 1/2, and Empty. Click here to learn more, including where you can buy them. You should be able to find these in your local Walmart, Target, Staples, and Office Depot–if you don’t see them, ask for the Expo markers with the ink indicator (a clear ink barrel.) You can also skip the trip to the store and get them now on Amazon.

2. Teach a responsible student volunteer how to revive dried-out markers.

When markers run out of ink, have students place them in a special container, and have your student volunteer revive the markers on a weekly basis (perhaps at dismissal time.) Click here for instructions.

Myria

3. Use labels to help students keep track of and care for their own markers

Make your markers last longer by assigning one to each student. A simple label will help students take ownership of and responsibility for not losing the marker and ensuring the cap’s on tightly.

Ms. 5th – TeacherPayTeachers

4. Get cheap erasers in the form of micro-fiber facial pads

I’ve always used felt squares, but this is so much better since it’s thicker and meant to be absorbent.

Daughters and Kindergarten

5. Glue a pom-pom to the end of students’ markers to create an built-in eraser

I love the idea of having an erase right on the end–no more losing erasers!

Everyday with the Jays

6. A piece of foam curler will do the trick, too

So clever!

Pinterest (Original Source Unknown)

7. Make the EXPO markers available to students as a check-in for how they’re feeling when they first arrive at school

Students can take turns responding during morning work, and you can discuss together during a morning meeting.

fitfabfiffth

8. Have students summarize what they learned on the first day

This is a great way to check for understanding about procedures and routines, and gauge what ideas really stuck with students.

miss5th

9. Draw attention to a special handout you want students to take

If you find yourself repeating to students “get the handout from the front of the room,” a big display like this will make it easier for kids to figure out what they need to do.

Mr. L’s Classroom

10. Write class rules on a chart and laminate it, then have students suggest hashtags that go with your rules and add them with dry erase markers

This is a great approach when you have a general idea of what you want class rules to be, but still want students to give some input.

We Teach High School

11. Have a Google board for questions no one in the class can answer

When students are stumped and you don’t want to derail your lesson, have them add their question to the board. Encourage students to show curiosity and take initiative in finding out the answers!

FRK Linn

12. Display birthdays in a way that’s easy to update when students transfer in or out

If you want to remember when each student’s special day is, but find that your roster is constantly changing, using an EXPO marker on the glass overlay of a picture frame can be the perfect solution.

Fabulous in First

Do you have an EXPO dry erase marker hack to share? How are you using them to welcome your students back to school? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Disclosure: EXPO sent me a sample of their dry erase ink indicator markers to try out, and they’ve compensated me via Syndicate Ads for helping to spread the word. I only recommend products on my blog that I truly believe in and would use myself in the classroom. 

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If you’re new to Kiddom, here’s the simplest explanation: it’s a collaborative learning platform that allows teachers to plan, assess, and analyze learning all in one place.

Kiddom’s greatest asset (in my opinion) is the free library of standards-based resources. Some are developed by experienced educators, and others are curated from trusted third-party sources like CK-12 and Khan Academy (meaning the videos, online games, etc. that you’re already using are likely to be integrated into Kiddom, so it’s easier to assign them to students.)

Kiddom’s goal has always been to help teachers move toward personalized learning, grounded in standards-based grading. Of course, that can be quite a lot of work, especially with large class sizes. So Kiddom is designed to help you spend less time finding and assigning standards-aligned work, and focus instead on actually executing those authentic, engaging learning experiences.

Kiddom: Spend less time planning standards-aligned work & more time engaging w/ kids
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I’ve heard from many, many teachers who have found Kiddom to be a really useful tool for helping them assign differentiated activities and track student progress progress. And recently, Kiddom has redesigned their system and rolled out a new, major feature–the Planner.

Kiddom’s new Planner is a curriculum development tool that helps teachers design a curriculum and modify pathways for groups and individual students.

Here’s why I think this is so important: curriculum development is fundamentally emotional work. So much thought goes into each step as you carefully plan lessons that will resonate with kids and help them make connections. And because each child learns differently and has unique interests, planning for individual needs can be an overwhelming task challenge.

How Kiddom’s Planner makes individualization easier for teachers

Kiddom’s Planner removes the rigidity of other planning platforms so it’s a more intuitive process to create those individualized pathways for each child. 

In Kiddom’s new design, the drag-and-drop function remains and the Planner is already integrated into the Timeline, making it easy to add lessons and activities to a class or for individual students. This gives you the flexibility to plan ahead and assign tasks to students, knowing that they’ll be assigned the work only when they’re ready for it.

Here’s a quick video clip of Planner in action:

How you can use the Playlists feature to simplify differentiation

Like most teachers, you’ve probably spent countless hours looking for an activity that’s just right for your students–or even just for one student in particular. I’ve been there, and that’s why I love the Playlists feature in Kiddom’s Planner.

A Playlist is a collection of thoughtfully curated instructional materials. Every resource included goes through a thorough, 3-step peer-reviewed evaluation before being added to Kiddom. Each Playlist is checked for flow, rigor, and of course, standards alignment. Learn more about the process here.

Like all the resources that you’ll find on Kiddom, the Playlists can dragged and dropped into your curriculum, helping you create a unique curriculum for any student in minutes.

You can create Playlists in Kiddom’s Planner for individual students, groups of kids, or your entire class. No more hunting all over the web for activities and sharing links randomly with students. Just create and assign Playlists.

How using Assignments created on the Planner makes assessment simpler

Not only is it easier for you to assign differentiated work and easier for kids to keep track of assignments, but it’s also far easier to see what kids have actually completed and how well they’re mastering the content.

Assignments created on the Planner automatically sync with Kiddom’s ready-made reports. These actionable reports are gorgeous, clean, and easy to read. They help you analyze both the entire class’ performance and individual students’ performance.

One high school teacher from New York City has found the Planner to be incredibly helpful with meeting the needs of struggling learners. It’s a great post to check out if you want to see a first hand account of how Kiddom is simplifying differentiation in a challenging teaching context.

Ready to try out Kiddom for yourself? Click here to get started.

Disclosure: Kiddom has compensated me through Syndicate Ads for helping to spread the word about their awesome resources. All opinions are my own. I only blog about products that I truly believe in and highly recommend that other educators use in their classrooms. 

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People who try smoking generally do it for the first time as a preteen or young teenager…and that means early intervention and proper education about the dangers of smoking are imperative.

Right Decisions, Right Now is a youth tobacco prevention program created by Lifetime Learning Systems. Its slogan is Be Tobacco-free and its goal is to persuade young people to stay away from smoking.

With an evidence-based educational program at its core, the organization provides teachers, parents, and other community members with resources to help educate middle school students not only about the dangers of using tobacco, but also help them make smart decisions in the face of peer pressure.

The program has been nationally-tested and was found to both decrease the number of smokers in test schools (grades 8-9) and lower the number of anticipated smokers in middle school students.

Lesson Plans & Activities 

The lesson resources are categorized according to grade levels (5th/6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th/9th grade). Each set has 4 components:

• Set of surveys to help assess risk and consequences (Keeping Healthy)
• Activities for interpersonal practice (How Friends Fit In)
• Activities for intrapersonal skills (How I Am)
• Self-assessment unit quiz

I particularly like that the activities are interactive and digital:

One cool thing to note about the surveys–the program offers a Survey Data Collector which aggregates students’ anonymous responses so you can gauge how students’ beliefs are shifting.

The series of surveys and activities are designed to work together and help students:

• explore their own beliefs about tobacco use
• understand the dangers of smoking
• learn how to resist peer pressure
• boost their self-esteem
• practice decision-making.

All of the resources (including posters and SMART Board activities) can be downloaded from the Right Decisions, Right Now website, along with detailed lesson plans that are easy to integrate into any curriculum.

Parent Resources

There are also resources for parents and community members who want to do their part in the campaign against tobacco use. Background information is provided on the whats and why of tobacco use among youth, along with information sheets on nicotine products including e-cigarettes. There’s even a parent pledge.

There’s also a series of videos that parents can watch with their pre-teen kids at home to guide them through conversations about smoking. The videos tell parents when to stop and follow the prompts on the screen.

Enter the Right Decisions Right Now Contest

The organization wants to thank middle schoolers and their teachers for their efforts to be tobacco-free with a classroom contest. Four teachers will win a $500 Staples gift card for classroom supplies for the 2017-2018 school year.

The contest is open to residents of the US who are currently employed full-time or part-time as an educator in a public or private K-12 school. Entries will be accepted until June 30, 2017.

Find out how to enter the contest, or start exploring the free activities and resources now.

Disclosure: Right Decisions Right Now has compensated me for spreading the word about their free resources. I only blog about materials that I like and would recommend to other teachers.

The post Right Decisions Right Now: Free anti-smoking resources for teachers & parents appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

However, one aspect of STEM can be a little more daunting for teachers to incorporate, and that’s coding and robotics. Coding is fast becoming a skill as essential as reading or doing math, and is now an in-demand skill across many industries.

But how can you as a teacher help students learn to code when you don’t know how to do coding yourself yet?

To make computer science accessible to grade school educators and students, Wonder Workshop has created Dash & Dot, a pair of robots that are designed to teach kids how to code.

Both Dash and Dot are capable of interacting with their surroundings, thanks to the sensors they’re built with. They can detect sounds, objects, and movements, making them aware if they are being engaged by their users. Pretty cool, huh?

With the help of apps designed to work with the robots, kids can program these robots to learn and play games, send messages, solve puzzles, and even complete an obstacle course!

Here’s what the Wonder Pack looks like right out of the box. That’s Dash there, in front. It’s a real, moving robot that can dance, sing, and respond to voice commands. And Dash can be programed to do lots of tasks and interact with its surroundings. Here’s a better image, up close:

Dot is pictured below, and doesn’t move. That doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting! Dot is installed with several games for kids to play with, and the same apps used to program Dash can be used by kids create even more games.

What makes the Dash & Dot system so effective in teaching kids how to code is that kids can immediately see the cause and effect of what they program.

There are five Wonder Workshop apps: Wonder, Blockly, Xylo, Path, and Go.

• Wonder is for creating behavior and interaction in Dash and adding intelligence and personality to Dot.
• Blockly is a drag-and-drop programming tool that helps kids understand concepts such as algorithms, command sequences, conditionals, loops, and also sets the sensors that allow the robots to interact with the world.
• Xylo, or Dash’s xylophone, helps students learn about algorithm, loops, command sequences, and control flow with the help of music.
• Path is for programming Dash to be mobile and capable of solving obstacle courses, and focuses on computational thinking.
• Go is used to program Dash to complete mobile tasks such as delivering messages, and for Dot to emulate characters from a storybook.

Apart from the apps that will be used to program Dash & Dot, teachers can also access Wonder Workshop’s coding curriculum that make it simple to introduce and integrate the robots in your classroom. The curriculum is aligned with the Common Core and the lessons can be categorized according to subject, grade level, robots, and robot accessories.

Each lesson plan comes complete with a description, objectives, projected duration, and all the other important details that you need to plan and deliver the lesson. These lesson plans are created by the Wonder Workshop and their growing community of educators.After some experimentation with Dash & Dot, you might even want to add to their database of lesson resources!

Disclosure: Wonder Workshop provided me with a set of Dash and Dot robots to test out for this review, and they’ve compensated me for helping to spread the word about their awesome resources. All opinions are my own, and I only blog about products that I would use in the classroom myself and recommend without reservation to other educators.

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