Group items tagged

"If you are using Google Classroom you may want to consider adding a permalink to a Google Hangout (GHO) onto the "About" section of Google Classroom. This creates a permanent video call that you can use for office hours, to schedule informal meetings with students or for having tutoring hours."

Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.

"Figuring out which tool is right for the job is something we all struggle with every day. Whether you're a contractor, plumber, or teacher, there's a lot of options to choose from. Teachers managing connected classrooms have it quite rough, though. There's an embarassment of riches when it comes to apps, web tools, and digital services that want to make your life easier. So how do you easily figure out which are the best education apps for connected classrooms, you ask? Great rhetorical question, Jeff!"

"Many primary teachers who only have access to one iPad in their classroom assume that there is very little they can do to make that iPad useful for an entire class.  A few weeks ago, I blogged about the way I would do the "listen to reading" option of the Daily Five in a one iPad classroom. Today, I want to share some options for blogging with only one iPad."

"Like Apple and Microsoft, Google also wants a place in your classroom. Google Apps for Education is a free suite of cloud-based tools created by Google to use in your classroom. You probably knew that part, and likely have a vague awareness of what's available (Google Drive, Google Form, etc.) But Sylvia Duckworth has gone a step further, giving you an extended metaphor (a train), a graphic (with color), and a brief description of each "stop" of the Google Apps for Education train."

"Whether a teacher uses Daily 5 in the classroom or not, word work is an important piece of student daily learning. This article will provide an extensive list of iOS word work apps. Each app is listed by grade level and state, showing how it will best serve your students while they work with words in the classroom. All apps are free unless otherwise noted."

"Augmented reality (AR) has evolved in recent years and its application in classrooms is limitless. Educators don't need to feel overwhelmed when trying to introduce AR in their classroom because there are many great apps that don't require a lot of knowledge in the field. There are useful apps for every subject and there are also apps that when a teacher is ready they can create their own AR targets. Augmented reality works well in schools because it brings close to real life experiences to the classrooms. It's fascinating to see the faces of students when they have the opportunity to explore space, the human body, cells or chemistry elements. You appreciate how eager and engaged they become with some simple AR apps."

"One of the more exciting apps that has recently made it's way onto the social media scene is Periscope. Periscope is a live, interactive video streaming  app which allows users to broadcast media and footage while their followers engage in their content at the same time. When used in the classroom, students are able to connect with the world in real-time and interact with any of the content that is made available to them. One of the ways Periscope can be used to enhance a lesson or unit is with a teacher-directed Periscope. Inviting students to interact in this way now allows for personalizing what is needed from each individual at that very moment. When creating content with a screencast program, teachers must already anticipate the needs of their class. With Periscope, teachers can broadcast content live to their students with the ability to tailor the video on the spot in response to student questions and conversations. Flipping a lesson, re-teaching a strategy, or communicating classroom information all in real-time now gives the teacher the power to easily personalize instruction through the interactivity of this app. Students on the other hand, now have the power to pick the path of their own learning."

"Are you thinking about buying a 3D printer for your school or classroom?  Before you buy something that could turn into a very expensive paperweight, I recommend you consider these factors. How is a 3D printer going to enhance your curriculum?  Are you going to buy it first and explore the possibilities, or do you already have ideas for utilizing it with students to benefit their learning?  If you would give the second answer, keep reading.  If it's the first, you need to do more research.  If the sole purpose of the printer will be to perform as a 21st century copy machine operated only by the teacher, then you will be doing your students an injustice, as the cost would definitely outweigh the benefits.  The only reason to buy a 3d printer for your classroom is so that students can learn and create. Once you decide that this printer will benefit student learning and you have concrete ideas for curriculum integration, then you need to think about some down-to-earth questions like these"

"I've gotten several emails after my last post and they all ended with the same line, "Where do I start?"  It can be overwhelming to start by Googling "makerspace."  What do you most often see?  That stark modern space with expensive 3d printers. But that? It's not the reality of what making in the classroom can be. I know the constraints faced by many of us in education, and I've lived them before.  You make do with what you have, get creative, and repurpose existing materials to MAKE making happen in your classroom.  You gotta start somewhere, right?"

"Successful and powerful integration of iPads in the classroom depends in no small part on keeping device management, well, manageable. Here's a quick look at how edtech folks are tackling the nuts and bolts of keeping track of, making best use of and not being made crazy by, iPads in the classroom. "

"Computer science education is not a new field. Much of what we know about the pedagogy and content for elementary students comes from Seymour Papert's research on teaching elementary students to code back in the 1970's and 80's. But, as we shift from labs and one-off classrooms to a broad expansion for all students in every classroom K-12, we are seeing changes to how computer science is taught. This means we are working in a rapidly evolving field (insert metaphor of building a plane while flying it). Over time, we have gone from a focus on coding (often in isolation) to a more broad idea of computer science as a whole, and now to the refined idea of computational thinking as a foundational understanding for all students. Pause. You may be asking, "But wait, what's computational thinking again?" In her book Coding as a Playground, Marina Umaschi Bers explained: "The notion of computational thinking encompasses a broad set of analytic and problem-solving skills, dispositions, habits, and approaches most often used in computer science, but that can serve everyone." More simply, you can think of computational thinking as the thought processes involved in using algorithms to solve problems. Sheena Vaidyanathan writes some good articles explaining the differences between computer science, coding, and computational thinking here and here."

"Every educator knows that children, especially those 4 to 7, learn a great deal through play. Harnessing that power for classroom learning can be tricky, though. Teachers may, for example, hesitate to let go of control and allow students to follow their own learning paths; they may worry that the learning that takes place during play will be difficult to assess. And they must respond to growing institutional pressure to meet standards. But it is possible. Here are some suggestions for how to incorporate play in the classroom."

"In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. However, the integration of these fundamental skills into formal and official curriculums is still a challenge and educators needs pedagogical perspectives to properly integrate robotics, coding and computational thinking concepts into their classrooms. Thus, this study evaluates a "coding as a playground" experience in keeping with the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework with the KIBO robotics kit, specially designed for young children. The research was conducted with preschool children aged 3-5 years old (N = 172) from three Spanish early childhood centers with different socio-economic characteristics and teachers of 16 classes. Results confirm that it is possible to start teaching this new literacy very early (at 3 years old). Furthermore, the results show that the strategies used promoted communication, collaboration and creativity in the classroom settings. The teachers also exhibited autonomy and confidence to integrate coding and computational thinking into their formal curricular activities, connecting concepts with art, music and social studies. Through the evidence found in this study, this research contributes with examples of effective strategies to introduce robotics, coding and computational thinking into early childhood classrooms."

"Although it's difficult to change the way the (school) system operates, it is possible to adjust how you operate within the system. Introducing meditation and mindfulness techniques in the classroom not only allows you to create a calmer environment, the practice has proven to have verifiable benefits on the human brain. A 2011 Harvard study of MRI images showed a thickening in the cerebral cortex (an area responsible in part for attention and emotional integration) in meditation participants in as little as 8 weeks. So, it's more than a good habit and some quiet time in the classroom, you may be helping the brains of your students develop even more than you realize. Where do you even begin teaching meditation when you may not be familiar with the practice yourself? Although it seems like an incongruous match, this is yet another area where technology steps in to make learning convenient, and a variety of apps offer options for every age, ability, and amount of available time. Here are a few to experiment with as you get started."

This week, I began using Educaplay to make fun classroom learning games for my students. In addition to easy game creation, sending the games to Google Classroom was easy, as was student work, automatic grading, and engagement. Many of us who have been teaching online need some variety. Presently, the site has many different types of activities and games: memory games, video quizzes, crossword puzzles, word search, fill in the blanks, diagram completion (they call these map quizzes), quizzes, word search, and more.

"Projects in the classroom are as old as the classroom itself. "Projects" can represent a range of tasks that can be done at home or in the classroom, by parents or groups of students, quickly or over time. While project-based learning (PBL) also features projects, in PBL the focus is more on the process of learning and learner-peer-content interaction that the end-product itself."

"Last year I volunteered in my child's Kindergarten class daily for an hour with our family's three iPads. I learned a lot about selecting educational content (primarily early math & literacy apps) and how to set up an environment most conducive for learning. I was most impressed by the potential for mobile devices to improve the experience in class for both teachers and students. So this year I volunteered to bring our iPads into my child's First grade class once a week for 'buddy reading'. As I do more outreach and training for local teachers in my community, I am surprised at the large number of classrooms getting devices without any guidelines about how to integrate them into their existing institutional structures or curriculum. From these experiences, I have come up with the following five tips for starting a new program in any classroom …"

"In past years you may have gotten in trouble with your teacher if you used a mobile device in the classroom. But this school year mobile devices are becoming more commonly accepted in classrooms. Teachers now don't automatically assume that you're texting someone, checking out Facebook or playing games if you're using your phone or iPad in the classroom. "

"Making use of free iPad apps in the classroom can enable you to diversify your teaching, while providing the opportunity to inspire and get students more engaged in lessons. There are many different educational apps available, which range from apps like Evernote that allow you to organize your teaching materials, through to interactive whiteboards from Educreations, and Screen Chomp, a screen recording app that can be very useful for teaching lessons on the go. What, then, are some of the best iPads that can be used in the classroom, whether you have multiple tablets, or just one as a teaching tool for different groups?"