September is National Preparedness Month - get yourself, family, home, school and business ready

September is National Preparedness Month, which serves as a reminder that we all must take action to prepare, now and throughout the year, for the types of emergencies that could affect us where we live, work, and visit.

The 2019 theme is "Prepared, Not Scared." Emergency Preparedness is something everyone needs to be a part of.
Take time to learn lifesaving skills − such as CPR and first aid, check your insurance policies and coverage for the hazards you may face, such as flood, earthquakes, and tornado's. Make sure to consider the costs associated with disasters and save for an emergency. Also, know how to take practical safety steps like shutting off water and gas.



The devastating hurricanes and wildfires of 2017 and 2018 reminded the nation of the importance of preparing for disasters. Often, we will be the first ones in our communities to take action after a disaster strikes and before first responders arrive, so it is important to prepare in advance to help yourself and your community.

It is important to consider three scenarios when planning for an emergency: 1) an escape route and meeting point if everyone is in the house; 2) what to do during a school day; and 3) how to handle an emergency during the weekend, when family members might be scattered.

Although many people are familiar with the concept of developing a family plan for emergencies, most fail to take the time to sit down and actually come up with one. One great resource is the FEMA-sponsored website: http://www.ready.gov/. Check out their kids section too: http://www.ready.gov/kids

Schools need to be prepared themselves, as well as teach their staff and students how to be prepared. (more info for schools below)

Is your school district prepared for a natural disaster?

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
Emergency Management Insitute
The FEMA EMI offers free, online courses for anyone to take. The courses are well done and there are plenty of downloadable materials to help you. If you pass the test at the end, you even get a certificate.

Here are a list of the courses that I think all educators should take: (I've taken these, and more)

IS-36 Multihazard Planning for Childcare
IS-100.c Introduction to the Incident Command System
IS-362.a Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools

Education Administrators should also be involved in community emergency planning because schools are on the top of the list as emergency shelters and field hospitals and the building administrators know their buildings.

Here is another great resource for schools from the US Dept of Ed - REMS - Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools. This site includes materials, resources and training (including free, on-site training) to help schools start assessing the safety, security, accessibility, and emergency preparedness of their  buildings and grounds.

REMS has an Emergency Management Virtual Toolkit to help schools build capacity in Emergency Management and Preparedness.


Ready.Gov also has Materials for Educators - Emergency preparedness curriculum for grades 1-12 that teach kids what to do before, during, and after an emergency while fostering critical 21st-century skills such as problem solving, teamwork, creativity, leadership, and communication.
Youth Emergency Preparedness Curriculum (4 PDFs)

American Medical Response, the EMS agency I worked for as a paramedic, also has some great resources for safety and preparedness, including bike safety, cold weather, hurricane, winter driving and much more.

Each household, business, and school should have an emergency plan, emergency kits and people trained in emergency preparedness and response.

I started my training in emergency preparedness while on my trail to Eagle Scout. Emergency Preparedness is a required merit badge and the Boy Scouts emphasize emergency preparedness among the scouts. I am a retired Paramedic, Special Operations Paramedic and FEMA trained in Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Management. I've responded to many disasters including 9/11 in NYC, hurricanes, blizzards, and mass casualty events and been incident command or staff at many of them.

Here are some of my favorite resources for learning about Emergency Preparedness.

Ready.gov is the US Government's web site for information and resources on emergency preparedness and response. There are resources for making a plan, an emergency kit, and how to stay informed. Information is included for individuals and businesses.

The Boy Scouts of America, who train all their Scouts and Adults in Emergency Preparedness, has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to provide resources for the public on getting prepared. The site has planning resources, how to make an emergency kit, and other resources.

The American Red Cross website also has information for creating an emergency plan and how to prepare for different emergencies. They also sell emergency kits (they are very good and a decent price). You can always make your own using their lists though. There is a full section on preparing schools and students. The Preparedness Fast Facts page is an excellent, one stop resource. They also have some great apps for both iOS and Android to help keep you informed and prepared - First Aid, Emergency (monitor conditions and find info ), Tornado, Earthquake, Pet First Aid, Hurricane, Flood and more.

You can even join your local Community Emergency Response Team. These are teams of citizens that are specially trained to help out in major emergencies, sort of like the reserves. Find out more here. Here is a list of CERT's by State: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cc/CertIndex.do?submitByState


Emergency Preparedness is everyone's responsibility.  Share these resources with your students, colleagues, and family.


More Emergency Preparedness resources.




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Kapwing - free online photo and video editor

Kapwing is an online photo and video editor with a great free version that works on any device. 

It is a whole suite of tools to perform simple editing tasks such as trimming videos, creating stop motion videos, adding subtitles, converting videos to gifs, resizing photos and videos, adding audio to videos, creating photo and video collages, and a handful of other tasks--you can see a full list of the tools here. 

The most popular tool, Studio, has a few of the other tools built in (such as trimming video and adding audio), so that's a good place to get started. 

Kapwing is used in a lot of classrooms as a tool for both educators and students and there is an education section of their blog here with lots of ideas and use cases. 

It is very easy to use and has a lot of great features and tools that will be very useful for students and teachers.

Here is an article on Kapwing for classrooms on Medium (they have added more editing features since the article was originally published).

You can register for Kapwing for free here: https://www.kapwing.com/signin

Related:

Lots of Photo Editing apps and resources

Lots of Video Editing apps and resources 

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free, downloadable Back to School Guide loaded with tips and resources to help teachers support social-emotional learning in the classroom

The best social-emotional learning (SEL) programs involve educators at all levels including teachers, administrators, and out-of-school-time staff. To support these roles, Aperture Education has created the free 2019 Back to School Guide: over 40 pages of resources, activities, downloads, tips, and tricks to help kick off the new school year with SEL.



The free 2019 Back to School Guide can be downloaded at http://info.apertureed.com/btsg-19.

The 2019 Back to School Guide is organized by job description and includes eye-catching icons to make it easy for users to quickly find the resources relevant to their role. The Guide includes:

· Articles on hot topics in SEL such as “How SEL can Help Reduce Bullying,” and “3 Ways SEL can Support Trauma-Informed Practices.”

· Sharable resources such as an infographic about integrating SEL into an RtI Framework and a list of “10 Binge-worthy SEL Webinars.”

· Tips for administrators on everything from securing funding for SEL programs to supporting SEL for educators.

· Lists of SEL activities that support staff can do with students between classes, as well as activities to help teachers de-stress.

· Information on how to use reliable data to measure SEL program effectiveness.



Download it here: http://info.apertureed.com/btsg-19 

Related:

Welcome back to school - resources for every teacher

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Ozobot Classroom - STEAM learning management system coming this Fall

Ozobot, makers of robots that empower coding and STEAM education for grades K–12, recently unveiled its new Ozobot Classroom learning management system.



Launching this fall, Ozobot Classroom will offer teachers an even better way to bring coding into lessons on any subject and at any grade level—with features that include an educator dashboard, real-time insights into student progress, a curriculum builder, and more. It will be the first LMS of its kind, delivering powerful insights into student engagement both with and without screens.

Once teachers create an account, they will be guided through training in Ozobot’s 2 Ways to Code: on-screen with OzoBlockly visual programming and screen-free with Color Codes. From there, educators can manage students and bots, access standards-aligned lesson recommendations, assign activities and digital badges, and use real-time insights into students’ online and offline activity to inform their teaching strategies.

As the only learning management system that provides insights for screen-free activities, teachers can keep up with their students' progress in real time. Once students have started interacting with their robots, Ozobot Classroom will then provide lesson recommendations and build a curriculum based on the individualized student data. 

Ozobot's Evo Educator Entry Kit and Evo Classroom Kit, which are compatible with the new Ozobot Classroom, were also selected as finalists for the 2019 SIIA CODiE Awards. The SIIA CODiE Awards recognize the top innovative products and services in the education and business technology industries. For more information on Ozobot's coding and STEAM products, and for a sneak peek at Ozobot Classroom, please visit https://ozobot.com/



Related:

STEM Resources for Education 





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Welcome back to school - resources for every teacher

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a great summer and was able to relax and recharge. Most schools around here start next week, with new teachers starting this week.

The beginning of the year is always a little crazy for all teachers. Getting your room setup, implementing new ideas into your lesson plans, getting to know your students, and just settling back in to the routine can be busy and stressful. Remember to not over do it and take time for yourself.

One thing I've done in the past that helped me is using a check list of everything I have to do when school starts, including setting up my room (computer, bulletin boards, etc), things I want to post in my room, lesson ideas and more in Evernote. I modify it each year, adding new things for the following year.

Here are some more tips, resources, and help to get your school year started on a positive note, and keep it that way.

Advice to New College Graduates about to enter the Teaching profession

Summary of new teacher tips, urban schools issues, technology resources


Google for Educators - Google has a huge number of free resources for teachers and students. Check them all out (they're all free).

Microsoft Education Resources - resources for admin, IT and teachers

Evernote for Education Resources - the ultimate note taking, web clipping, lesson planning resource

Create a Personal Learning Network - a PLN is an excellent resource for help, advice, and sharing ideas.

Overview of some free technology that can help you be more organized and efficient.




Related:

List of What Makes a Good Teacher - created by students

Great resources for New Teachers - advice, support, and training

Advice to New College Graduates about to enter the Teaching profession

Making School Relevant for Students

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future

10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have

Getting Students and Teachers Organized - tips and resources


Good luck and I hope everyone has a great school year!!





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eSpark - a fun and engaging way to differentiate reading and math instruction for students in preK-5th grade

eSpark is a fun and engaging way to differentiate reading and math instruction for students in preK-5th grade. It is completely web-based. They have just released a free, one-year trials of eSpark as well. Sign up free here: https://www.esparklearning.com/#signup-modal

eSpark automatically differentiates for PreK - 5 students based on their current needs with targeted instruction in reading and math. It includes games, videos and other resources to help students while they have fun. It is adaptive based on each student and helps students with self-paced pathways to assist them in mastering new standards and receive immediate feedback. 

eSpark also has great teacher tools including a dashboard to track progress and see where students are. Teachers can receive weekly, actionable emails that share suggestions to work with small groups and 1:1 interventions. Teachers can also use on-demand assignments to assign targeted skill practices to students.

eSpark has an engaging variety of resources to keep students engaged and on task, while automatically meeting each student at their own level. 

You can learn more with this walk through video and below.

Disclaimer - eSpark is a paid advertiser on ETG.

The Future of STEM Education: 5 Innovative Ideas About to Break Through

The Future of STEM Education: 5 Innovative Ideas About to Break Through

by Kate Began


With our world becoming increasingly technology-driven, there is growing demand for workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. To meet this demand, there has been ongoing discussion on how to best educate our kids for a STEM-focused future.

How can we best equip our kids with the necessary skills to face future challenges? While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to teaching STEM, researchers and educators are always searching for innovative ideas to help kids develop in-demand skills.

STEM education will only become more important moving forward. To best prepare our kids for a tech-driven future, here are five innovative ideas that educators are testing out:

Highly-Specialized Elementary Teachers
As it stands now, math and science teachers are forced to cover a wide breadth of topics geared towards preparing students for the future. The main problem is that many elementary teachers are woefully unprepared to cover in-depth topics that ignite their students’ passion for STEM.

To combat this problem, some schools are choosing to employ teachers who specialize in robotics, coding and other in-demand fields. With a greater depth of knowledge on a subject, teachers can help build confidence and STEM literacy in students.

Although the idea of specialized elementary teachers is far from becoming widespread, the groundwork for these teachers is currently in the works. Already, we’re seeing universities such as Arizona State University offer specialized STEM education programs to help teachers feel confident teaching STEM subject matter.






Game-Based Learning
Educators have long been using game-based learning strategies to boost student engagement. If your classroom was ever divided into two teams and pitted against each other for a trivia game, you’ve experienced game-based learning.

Today’s game-based learning is far more sophisticated. To prepare students for a future in STEM, some educators are bringing immersive technology into the classroom and utilizing it for game-based learning.

For example, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have the power to transform STEM education. With these technologies, students can take a virtual field trip to the International Space Station, hear our heart pump blood through our cardiovascular system or observe the innerworkings of advanced electronics housed inside stainless steel enclosures.

Encouraging Infant and Toddler Math Education
Amazingly, even infants and toddlers can learn from STEM-based activities. Exploring new colors, shapes and textures with your child are technically science and math-based activities that invite your child to explore new concepts. Asking your toddler open-ended questions (as opposed to “yes” and “no” questions) is another simple way to begin preparing them for the world of STEM.

Why bother encouraging STEM skills at such an early age? Early introduction to STEM concepts has repeatedly shown to benefit children in all areas of education.

According to the National Research Council, early math knowledge can boost a child’s math comprehension later in life, as well as their reading comprehension skills. By integrating STEM learning earlier, parents can give their child a head start for their future education.





Enhancing STEM Experiences Through Inclusive Learning Spaces

A learning environment which sparks creativity and innovation in kids is critical to our future success in STEM education. The biggest question facing educators is which learning environment is best for STEM education?

While researchers have all sorts of different ideas on what makes the ultimate STEM learning environment, most will agree that the classroom must be flexible, inclusive and technology-based. A classroom which is open to discussion and which embraces failure is key to a positive STEM experience in young kids.

Today, teachers are slowly becoming educated on teaching soft skills in STEM. These skills refer to non-technical skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication and problem-solving.

Soft skills are growing ever more important in our technology-based world. No matter how sophisticated our automated systems become, humans are still valued for their creativity, flexibility and motivation.

Getting the necessary funding for these inclusive, high-tech spaces remains a significant challenge for school districts. However, a classroom which embraces hands-on learning and has connectivity is key to successful STEM education.

At-Home STEM Visits

Preparing our teachers and classrooms for STEM is only half the battle. As a child’s first teacher, parents play a critical role in facilitating a child’s learning and career opportunities in STEM.

To help parents integrate STEM learning into the home, some schools are partnering with organizations that conduct at-home visits. These visits are meant to ensure that kids have the tools and resources they need to succeed in a high-tech world.

The Puerto Rico-based Flamboyan Foundation between schools and parents. The private family foundation, which also has a facility in Washington D.C., work with the school’s principal to increase family engagement and empower students to learn STEM topics.

Although foundations such as Flamboyan aren’t uncommon, they are yet to become widespread. But with growing importance on STEM education, we will no doubt see more schools utilizing these types of services to encourage STEM learning at home.

The Future Begins Now


STEM is already a pervasive part of our lives. Each day, STEM-related skills are used to solve the complex challenges that society is currently facing.

Challenges related to climate change, health care delivery and sustainability are all issues that our kids will need to face in the future. If we are to successfully meet the demands of tomorrow, we must foster a passion for STEM-related concepts through early education.

Kate Began serves as the Sales and Marketing Manager for Polycase. Kate oversees the customer service representatives, assists with product development and leads the marketing efforts from the Avon, Ohio headquarters.

RELATED:


STEM Resources (lots)

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY GRADUATE SPENCER KIPER ON WINNING LOUISIANA TEACHER OF THE YEAR AND THE FUTURE OF STEM INSTRUCTION































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