Featured #GoOpenVA Resources, November 16, 2020
Jean Weller, VSTE Board Member and VDOE Technology Integration Specialist, leads the #GoOpenVA initiative in Virginia. This collaborative initiative enables educators and others throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations.
The database is growing. Jean recently created a collection for resources specifically related to professional learning. Technology coaches from across the state have contributed and you can learn more here.
Focus on Collaboration
More heads are better than one! Collaboration is a great way to develop an engaging, flexible, and innovative educational resource. Remember that you can collaborate using #GoOpenVA tools, like Groups and the Open Author editor which allows for co-authors, while social distancing with colleagues near (or far). Here are some cool lesson plans created by teams of Virginia educators.
Designing a Martian Pod to Minimize Heat Transfer is one of the Science Instructional Plans created by teachers under VDOE’s guidance. In it, students are challenged to learn about energy and energy transformations through practical applications.
Pharmacy Technician FlexBook is the very first textbook created as an OER to be shared on #GoOpenVA. The work was a dedicated effort by Kim McTyre and Kathleen Vuono of Virginia Beach Public Schools, to support the new CTE course for Pharmacy Technicians.
VT PEERS: Mountain Road Repair was developed by groups of teachers funded through an NSF grant, focusing on engineering in the K-12 classroom. This collaboratively created lesson focuses on student collaboration as a tool for learning how to solve problems.
Featured #GoOpenVA Resources, November 9, 2020
Jean Weller, VSTE Board Member and VDOE Technology Integration Specialist, leads the #GoOpenVA initiative in Virginia. This collaborative initiative enables educators and others throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations.
The database is growing. Jean recently created a collection for resources specifically related to professional learning. Technology coaches from across the state have contributed and you can learn more here.
#GoOpenVA hosts instructional resources from Virginia education institutions as well as individual educators. During the fall, you might want to focus student attention on the study of their immediate environment, no matter where they live in the state. Here are a few examples of resources you can use to study about Virginia!
The Virginia Geographic Alliance provides a wonderful set of lesson plans for studying various aspects of Virginia Geography in their Virginia GeoInquiry Flipsnack Guide. Geoinquiries are intended to help get new teachers started or to move experienced teachers to grow their curriculum to incorporate deeper learning opportunities for students. Teachers are guided on how to include local geographies into their students’ lessons, along with personal observations and data collection.
Virginia Public Media partnered with the Virginia Wildlife Center (VWC) to post their Untamed video series, about wildlife in Virginia in the Virginia Wildlife Center Collection. Students can view videos to learn about animals such as bald eagles and black bears. Teachers can connect with the VWC to find background information to guide discussions on the animals and related topics, such as lead poisoning and creating backyard habitats.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is expert at getting students to think and dig deeper. Jamestown and Beyond: The World of 1607 provides artwork for students to explore with the purpose to consider the cultures that influenced Jamestown and its legacy not only in Virginia but in the broader world. Suggested activities for teachers to pursue with their students lead to a deeper learning experience than just a simple visit to a gallery.
Draft Schedule Available: VSTE 2020 Goes Virtual
The draft schedule for VSTE 2020 is available now. Check it out to see the wide variety of opportunities to learn, share and grow.
The conference has two parts: sessions on Wednesday, December 9 - Friday, December 10 are free and will be streamed so anyone is able to join.
Beginning Friday evening and through Sunday, December 13, sessions will be available to paid registrants only. Registration is required for the paid portion of the conference.
Featured Resources from #GoOpenVA, November 2, 2020
Jean Weller, VSTE Board Member and VDOE Technology Integration Specialist, leads the #GoOpenVA initiative in Virginia. This collaborative initiative enables educators and others throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations.
The database is growing. Jean recently created a collection for resources specifically related to professional learning. Technology coaches from across the state have contributed and you can learn more here.
We asked her to periodically curate a few of the resources to give a sense of what is available. Start with these but stay for so much more! And be sure to follow Jean on Twitter.
A salute to Hanover County Public Schools, supporting their fellow educators around Virginia with some great lessons! Each teacher used a different way to share on #GoOpenVA—an HTML document, uploaded document files, and a link to a Google site! It’s easy to share on #GoOpenVA—you can do it however feels comfortable for you.
Los Saludos – Greetings in Spanish: Erica Creasy of Hanover collects several different digital resources to teach students in early Spanish courses about interactions between people, and the cultural rules involved. She invites other Spanish teachers to take this lesson and extend it to suit their needs. Taker her up on her offer and make a REMIX!
https://goopenva.org/
Solving Equations by Combining Like Terms Lesson: Kate Poprik of Hanover wrote a lesson that can be combined with in-person classroom work, or stay strictly virtual. She provides a PDF, as well as a Word document that can be easily edited.
https://goopenva.org/
Chesapeake Watershed and Ecosystems: Lisa Atkins of Hanover provides a link to her Google Drive where she has stored several lesson pieces to cover the exploration of Virginia’s connection to the Chesapeake watershed.