Author: Jacqui
How to Teach Venn Diagrams to Elementary School Students
Venn Diagrams are one of the most visual approaches to showing students the logical relationships between sets and connectivity of data. It uses overlapping circles to show the wholeness of data and then where they overlap other data sets. It’s easy to find templates for them–in MS Office, Google Apps, Canva, and more.
One of our Ask a Tech Teacher crew has organized the basics on how to teach Venn Diagrams to elementary-age students:
- What is a Venn Diagram
- How to make it digitally
- How to make it clear to elementary students (get crafty)
- How to use it to design games
How to Teach Venn Diagrams to Elementary School Students
Teaching children Venn diagrams is the beginning of teaching them how to sort and manage data, a skill that is becoming ever more useful in this technological era. However, finding a way to teach them that sticks is important – generic worksheets just won’t do! We’ve come up with a few ways you can teach elementary school students Venn diagrams that will make your lessons dynamic and fun.
https://pixabay.com/photos/school-draw-drawing-education-1974369/
What is a Venn Diagram?
It’s important to make sure you first understand what a Venn diagram is. A Venn diagram is a plot of overlapping circles that can display items via specific categories, as well as relationships. For example, you can have a Venn diagram representing blue eyes with one circle, and brown hair with another circle. Those with blue eyes but not brown hair will end up in only the segment for blue eyes; those with brown hair but not blue eyes will be placed only in the segment for brown hair. Those with blue eyes and brown hair will be placed in the segment created by the overlap of the two circles.
This is a fun concept to teach to children because it’s a visual method, so it isn’t difficult to find something both visual and interactive to make sure it’s memorable. Now for the methods!
Make it Digital
With technology becoming the main focus of life, especially for the younger generation, one of the best ways to connect and share ideas is through technology. This means using digital tools and accessing an online venn diagram can be incredibly helpful for many reasons. Firstly, it allows you to project what you’re describing on your smartboard or interactive whiteboard, allowing you to demonstrate to the class what you mean. It makes a good start!
Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog
A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share one of the most popular posts from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams.
Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future tip.
This tip is about visiting a website that gives you an error code similar to this:
You probably think the site isn’t working, but a lot of times, it’s a different easily solved problem that takes no time to do.
Look at the URL address (at the top of the webpage):
HS Financial Training Classes
Such an important topic, especially as we see kids aren’t graduating with basic knowledge of budgeting, paying bills, and more. CNBC has a great article on one of their blogs on this subject you’ll appreciate:
High schools, scrambling to prep Gen Z for the real world, are teaching students to make and manage money
We at Ask a Tech Teacher have written often about financial literacy. Check out these articles:
We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to place foot on the moon. Commemorate that this year with an exciting collection of websites and apps that take your students to the Moon. Here are some you’ll like:
- Apollo 11: Countdown to Launch via Google Earth
- Apollo 11 VR
- Google Moon–see the Moon in 3D with your Google Earth app
- How we are going to the Moon–video
- JFK Challenge — takes kids to the Apollo 11
- NASA Educator Guide to the Moon (for teachers)
- Moon Phase Simulation Viewed from Earth and Space (interactive, elementary and middle school)—and associated Lesson Plan
- Observing the Moon in the Sky (interactive, elementary)
- Moonrise to Moonset (media gallery, elementary)
More on space
In Love with Space? Here are Great Websites to Take You There
Tech Ed Resources for your Class–Digital Citizenship
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.
Today: K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Overview
K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum—9 grade levels. 17 topics. 46 lessons. 46 projects. A year-long digital citizenship curriculum that covers everything you need to discuss on internet safety and efficiency, delivered in the time you have in the classroom.
Digital Citizenship–probably one of the most important topics students will learn between kindergarten and 8th and too often, teachers are thrown into it without a roadmap. This book is your guide to what children must know at what age to thrive in the community called the internet. It blends all pieces into a cohesive, effective student-directed cyber-learning experience that accomplishes ISTE’s general goals to:
- Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
- Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity
- Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning
- Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship
EdTech’s Top Blogs to Follow–Yep, We’re On It
EdTech Review’s EdTech Blogs You Must Follow is a comprehensive review of the top blogs that will keep you plugged into everything happening in the education technology world. Among their recommendations–
- Ask a Tech Teacher (that’s us)
- Education Technology and Mobile Learning
- 19 more
Click here for the complete list and details.
40 Websites to Teach Keyboarding
Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to teach keyboarding. For more keyboarding websites, software, typing tests, special needs, and more, click Ask a Tech Teacher’s Keyboarding Page:
Lesson Plans
Tech Ed Resources for your Class–K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m going to take a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are edited and/or written by members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, by tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.
Today: K-8 Keyboard Curriculum
Overview
K-8 Keyboard Curriculum (four options plus one)–teacher handbook, student workbooks, companion videos, and help for homeschoolers
2-Volume Ultimate Guide to Keyboarding
K-5 (237 pages) and Middle School (80 pages), 100 images, 7 assessments
K-5–print/digital; Middle School–digital delivery only
Aligned with Student workbooks and student videos (free with licensed set of student workbooks)
Student workbooks sold separately
__________________________________________________________________________
1-Volume Essential Guide to K-8 Keyboarding
120 pages, dozens of images, 6 assessments
Great value!
Delivered print or digital
Doesn’t include: Student workbooks
25 Websites for Lesson Planning
Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using for lesson planning:
Organize/Create lesson plans
- Alma–create standards-based lessons and gradebook, with analytics
- BlendSpace–blend a variety of digital materials into one canvas for students
- CK-12 — and differentiate for student learning styles
- Educreations
- Explain Everything–screencasting, interactive whiteboard
- GoConQR–create and manage planners
- Kiddom
- LearnZillion
- Nearpod–access lessons from mobile device or desktop
- PearDeck
- Planbook–simple lesson planning that can be shared, expanded with attached files; yearly fee
- Show Me
- Standards Planner–drag-drop resources to customized schedule (free or fee)
- Sutori
- TEDEd–-create lesson plans using TED talks and/or YouTube
- TES–create digital lesson plans quickly
Get Lesson Plans
- 110 lesson plans by topic, tool, and grade
- AKC–animal-themed lesson plans for grades 6-8
- CyArk–geography-based lesson plans
- Free lesson plans on many topics
- Google Education—lesson plans, more
- Hello Ruby–lesson plans on technology
- Inexpensive lesson plans on popular topics
- TEDEd--great for flipped classrooms
- World Wildlife Federation activities
For updates to list or more, check the Ask a Tech Teacher resource pages for ‘Lesson Planning’.
What’s your favorite place to get help on lesson planning? Share it in the comments below.
–Image credit Deposit Photo
Tech Ed Resources–Lesson Plans
I get a lot of questions from readers about what tech ed resources I use in my classroom so I’m taking a few days this summer to review them with you. Some are from members of the Ask a Tech Teacher crew. Others, from tech teachers who work with the same publisher I do. All of them, I’ve found well-suited to the task of scaling and differentiating tech skills for age groups, scaffolding learning year-to-year, taking into account the perspectives and norms of all stakeholders, with appropriate metrics to know learning is organic and granular.
Today: Lesson Plans
There are lots of bundles of lesson plans available–by theme, by software, by topic, by standard. Let me review a few:
- STEM Lesson Plans
- Coding Lesson Plans
- By Grade Level
- 30 K-5 Common Core-aligned lessons
- 110 lesson plans–integrate tech into different grades, subjects, by difficulty level, and call out higher-order thinking skills.
- singles–for as low as $.99 each. Genius Hour, Google Apps, Khan Academy, Robotics, STEM, Coding, and more.
- Holiday projects–16 lesson plans themed to holidays and keep students in the spirit while learning new tools.
Who needs this
These are for the teacher who knows what they want to teach, but needs ideas on how to integrate tech. They are well-suited to classroom teachers as well as tech specialists.
