1. Accessibility for All
I’ve been working hard this past year to make sure I incorporate accessible practices into the courses and professional development opportunities I design, so the quote below caught my attention:
Most of us know that federal law requires public places such as stores, restaurants, hospitals, and even school buildings to be accessible and provide additional support to those who need it. What is sometimes missed is that these requirements, under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, also apply to digital materials, such as those we use in education and with our learning management systems. So it’s another important aspect we have to think about in regard to lesson and curriculum design. Katie Novak further explains this in this blog post.
2. PDF Editor in Canva
I get asked about how to edit PDF documents quite frequently. If you have access to Adobe Acrobat, this is easy. But most teachers or schools don’t pay for this, which is why I got excited to learn that Canva can do this! I retweeted about this on Wednesday and learned that not only can you edit, but you can convert PDF’s to other documents and vice versa too.
3. Adobe Firefly
TCEA shared in a recent newsletter article about Adobe Firefly. While I had heard of it before, I took a closer look at the article and learned it’s the next big AI tool that can generate images by entering text descriptions. It can also create text effects by changing the text and adding images to “fill in” the word, such as using the word “Calm” and having butterflies merged together to create each letter’s shape. According to the article, not only will it be a stand-alone tool, but should be integrated into Adobe’s other tools, such as their free Creative Cloud Express tool for schools. I’ll be interested to see how it compares to Canva’s Text to Image generator. Right now it’s in beta and you have to apply to get an invite.
Here’s a quick video to see what Adobe Firefly can do:
4. Daily Spiral Review
There are so many strategies to use to help students understand and review concepts, sometimes it’s easy to forget about some of them. In a recent conversation with a teacher, they brought up spiraling, which clicked a light on in my brain. Oh yeah – that’s a good strategy to use! So when I saw the below Instagram post, I wanted to check it out and remind myself of this useful strategy. Click to view the full article here.
5. Instructional Playbook: A Collaborative Project by Coaches for Coaches
Finally, I’ve been working with a group of instructional coaches for the last six months to create an Instructional Playbook. Inspired by Jim Knight’s book The Instructional Playbook, we created one-pagers and checklists on instructional strategies that coaches can use with the teachers they work with. It also contains a hub with activities and templates you can use or contribute to.
If you like the playbook and want to add to it, feel free to make a copy and create your own. It’s available with a Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows others to copy, distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon this work, for noncommercial purposes, as long as they credit the original creation.
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Ms Priester EDU 