Columbia Spotlight

Summer is always a great time to try new things. In fact, with all of your free time, why not try CODING? If that is the case for you, then you might be interested in the 2021 Congressional App Challenge which launches on June 24th, 2021. Students can enter their apps between then and November 1st, 2021. We are fortunate at Columbia to have the Superintendent & Board's support to introduce AP Computer Science A next year. We also have thriving robotics and Girls who Code clubs as well mentored by two great faculty members.  For those interested in female coders, their history, and the financial opportunities for coders today, check out the following resources: 1. This  60 Minutes  clip  reveals the need for diversity in Silicon Valley and how determined companies are to hire more female coder$! 2. This informative WIRED article  identifies the "10 Women in Science & Tech Who Should Be Household Names." Both the   NYT   & the   Washing...

This summer we will be updating the Health curriculum as we continue our focus on "Healthy Relationships." Of course, we will be using the 2020 NJ Learning Standards as our basis.  In addition to the NJ standards, we may want to review these resources as well: 1.  Amaze Videos . These videos are geared towards middle school and early school and cover a great variety of topics in fun but genuine ways.  2. Character Strong . Thanks to a state grant, Ms. Balassone has been able to acquire the grades 9 - 12 curriculum from this company. We will look to fold in the lessons with guidance programs, advisory sessions, and health classes!  3. CSM's Digital Citizenship . This curriculum by Common Sense Media is replete with awesome units and lessons for high school students.  4.  The 3 Rs . This program by Advocates for Youth focuses on Rights, Respect, and Responsibility. It is a great resource, especially as one of our community members is a leader in this organiz...

Check out these three options from tech guru/blogger Richard Byrne on how to provide AUDIO feedback to your students.  This is a great option for all teachers, but especially World Language teachers who want students to practice even more in the target language. Plus two of them allow you to archive "canned replies" so you can use similar text and audio replies over and over. Mote  is a Chrome extension that can be used to record voice notes directly within Gmail, Google Classroom, Google Slides, and Google Documents. One of its many convenient features is that students do not need to have the extension installed in order to listen to your voice notes.  This video  shows you how to add audio notes to Google Documents and  this one  shows you how to add audio notes to Google Slides. e-Comments   is a Chrome extension that lets you add canned comments to Google Docs, Word documents (when opened in your web browser), Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, ...