Aurora Borealis Student Film Festival - Aurora Public Schools

Film/video is a passion for students of all ages. Through film production, students gain access to a wide variety of 21st century skills that prepare them for their futures. Along with those skills, students are able to explore their interests while voicing their opinions and views about the world in which they live. Student film is an opportunity for everyone to hear about the ways in which students interpret the world and solutions they possess to some of the world's problems.  It can also be a great way to understand their thinking and allow us to tap into the things that drive their desires and dreams so that we can hopefully support their efforts and achievements.

On May 11, 2016 Aurora Public Schools will host its first annual student film festival the "Aurora Borealis". The film festival will provide an opportunity for APS students to showcase their film production talents. The festival is open to all students in APS who have a desire to write, capture, produce, and edit their own short films, videos, or commercials.

The festival will be an Academy Awards of sorts to recognize and highlight the work of students within the district this year. Anyone is welcome to attend the event and view the student work while engaging in the socializing that will be present at the event.  Light refreshments will be served along with opportunities to connect with various students, parents, teachers, district personnel, and community partners. 

View the official 2016 film festival teaser video below.  

Formative Assessment Made Easy with Superquiz

Super Quiz is a great new formative assessment tool that has just been released.  Super Quiz is an Add-On for Google Sheets that quickly creates data and statistical displays of any student responses. Flubaroo has been another popular grading tool for Google Forms & Sheets for a long time and now there's another option that teachers can choose from. With Super Quiz, you don't need to wait for data on your students, you can instantly get breakdowns that will allow you to make quick instructional decisions and support struggling students.

Language Immersion Extension to Support Learning a New Language

The Chrome Extension called "Language Immersion for Google Chrome" is a free service that changes a certain number of words on a website, blog, etc to any one of 64 languages Google currently translates.

It's easy to install and has five settings (novice to fluent) to differentiate the difficulty for the learner.


At the novice level, a few phrases in each paragraph appear in the chosen second language. At the fluent level, entire paragraphs are translated. On top of that, the translated phrases are highlighted and toggle on click between English and the translated language. The extension works on any webpage that is not https - generally, any webpage that is not password protected or requires a log-in.

"Scaffold-Blasting" - Differentiate on the Fly in Google Classroom

Being able to differentiate assignments in Google Classroom is an oft-requested feature. We know that differentiation done well is one path to creating an equitable learning environment for all of our students.

Currently, there are work-arounds such as attaching multiple versions of a google doc and directing students on which assignment to choose or using a google sheet add-on such as Doctopus to manage the differentiation. But like most work-arounds, those choices come with an added layer of complexity for the teacher and/or the student.

How about a solution that's quick, easy, and most importantly, instantly responsive to the student's needs in the moment?

Erich Ball, Social Studies teacher at Aurora Hills Middle School, came up with a method he has termed "Scaffold-Blasting."

Great Professional Learning Opportunity

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is coming to Denver next summer. This event is one of the largest and most popular professional learning experiences in the world when it comes to technology in education.  It's time to start thinking about your registration and plans to attend now so you can get the most out of this experience.  Registration for the 2016 conference in Denver, CO. opened yesterday so you can get set up at anytime.  If you're interested in attending this world class professional learning event, you'll find all the details below.  

Supporting Students with Reading and Writing Difficulties

One of my favorite Chrome extensions is Read & Write for Google. This extension has been added to all the APS Chromebooks, so students using these devices, automatically have this extension. Although students have the free version and do not have as many features, Read & Write provides text to speech and dual highlighting (yellow & blue) for any text on any website, PDF, or Google doc. It also provides an in the text translator.

As a teacher, you can get a free premium account for this extension by completing the form on this link. The premium version provides the same text to speech, dual highlighting, and translator features.  It also includes supports for Google Docs, specifically, multi-highlighting options for active reading, extracting highlights, a vocabulary chart, a regular and picture dictionary, and word prediction. This Quick Reference Guide will provide more details about the features.

In order to download this extension, you need to be logged into your Chrome account in the aurorak12.org account. Next, you can go to the Chrome Web store or click on this link to download it.

Check out this Read & Write for Google Presentation for more details on how this tool can help you in the classroom. Feel free to contact your Ed Tech Coach if you need help

Chrome Tips and Trips

It was my pleasure to attend and present at the Google Apps for Education Summit in Breckenridge last month. One the topics I presented was How to Personalize and Differentiate Instruction with Add-ons, Apps, and Extensions. There are many, many helpful Chrome Tools that can be used to help students and teachers. This session focused on helpful educational add-ons, apps, and extensions for supporting reading and writing for all grade levels.