VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

OER

Featured #GoOpenVA Resources, December 14, 2020

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logo for go open vaJean 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.

Featured Resources

One of the best things about OER is that you can take an lesson created for one content area and edit it to address additional activities to address another content area.  Here are some lessons that can easily be edited to include English SOL, making them cross-curricular.

Comparing the Layers of the Atmosphere is a short science activity from Tanna Mezacapa of Virginia Beach.  This lesson involves having students make comparisons between the layers of the atmosphere and any other layered thing with which they are familiar. Can’t you see a great way to extend this lesson to English studies on similes and metaphors for a cross-curriculum lesson?

Boston Massacre: Propaganda is a primary source lesson from Michelle Carr of Hanover. Focusing on the use of propaganda during a historical time period can also be a great lesson for English regarding writing persuasively or studying media literacy.  Can you write a cross-curricular remix to incorporate English SOL with the History and Social Science SOL?

Map Symbols Unplugged is a lesson created by the Virginia K-12 Computer Science Pipeline project.  Why not add an extra dimension by including writing directions, or creating a story to go with the map(s)?  Such a cross-curricular lesson would give you extra value for the time the students spend on the lesson!

Featured Resources from #GoOpenVA, November 30, 2020

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logo for go open vaJean 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.

 

Our earliest learners, PreK to 2, need lots of support and #GoOpenVA has quite a few resources that can be used with these beginning students.  However, we are in need of more lessons, especially those created with Virginia students in mind.  Please share your Pre-K lessons with your fellow educators, using the tools on #GoOpenVA to add resources (see the Users Hub for directions on how to do this!)

Henrico EdFlix from Henrico County Public Schools provides lots of resources for remote learning and some really wonderful Choice Boards for preschool students.  Click on the many examples to choose one, or two, or three that suit your students’ needs!

Pattern Play (Kindergarten) is a new resource produced by WHRO just for Virginia students.  It is a recorded lesson taught by Dr. Karen Drosinos and can be used as is or edited into shorter segments as needed.

Call and Response Songs from Carnegie Hall is a great way to get your students warmed up for learning.  This activity can be done in person or online.  Although the lesson suggests a couple of fun songs for your students to sing, you can use call and response songs you remember from your own childhood.  Add your suggestions in the COMMENT box on the resource landing page (that’s where the above link will take you).

Featured #GoOpenVA Resources, November 16, 2020

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logo for go open vaJean 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

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logo for go open vaJean 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.

Featured Resources from #GoOpenVA, November 2, 2020

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logo for go open vaJean 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/courseware/lesson/1666/overview

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/courseware/lesson/1556/overview

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.

https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/1486/overview