Group items tagged

"Can you recall a time when you were so engaged in learning that you became unaware of your surroundings, that each step of the process energized you to pursue your goal further, and the learning became its own reward? Recently, I was working with a gathering of administrators from my county, contemplating the puzzle of student engagement. Most of the small groups in the room organized their exploration around the premise that on-task behavior is a necessary but insufficient step toward engagement. The T-charts they created focused on how an administrator observing a class might recognize subtle differences."

"The use of rubrics in the classroom falls in and out of favor, as do other trends. This infographic demonstrates why rubrics, unlike other trends, should be here to stay. Rubrics, in essence, are an easy way to score student work objectively. They are succinct scoring charts that allow for student work to be fairly evaluated. Therefore, it can improve teaching methodologies and ensure unbiased assessment. Rubrics can also be used to help increase student agency and intrinsic motivation, a constant struggle in today's reward based culture. This infographic is neatly split into two sections, "Why Use Rubrics?" and "How to Use Rubrics?" This allows the use (presumably a teacher) to easily refer back to relevant information as needed to help deliver quality education, regardless of experience or expertise."

"Read on for a list of 50 games trying new things on your mobile devices, often below the limelight at the top of the app store charts."

"Chances are, if you have a smartphone or tablet, you've played Angry Birds. While Candy Crush Saga might currently top the charts, Angry Birds is the best selling app of all time. From an educator's perspective, what's exciting about Angry Birds' popularity versus something like Candy Crush is that getting good at Angry Birds means skillfully - and often unconsciously - using conceptual physics knowledge. It's something video games have been doing for years, but Angry Birds brought it to a mass audience, sneaking a bit of science into many students' digital diets. Here are five other games for the Angry Birds fan that do an even better job of integrating physics and problem solving into addictive, just-one-more-try experiences."

"The breakthrough happened after the student took the Bartle's Gamer Profile Quiz and we found out that he was a "killer." Off-the-charts killer, but achievement meant nothing to this student. Just like grades. No, we haven't identified the next school shooter, and I sure wish that Bartle hadn't named one of the four gamer profiles "killer" -- but nonetheless, this student identified with this profile. Jane McGonigal mentioned it in her Gaming Can Make a Better World TED Talk when she discussed an epic meaning. My so-called "killer" student (and we really should rename this when applying it to education!) simply saw things as a battle between good and evil and wanted to fight on the side of good in an epic quest to make the world a better place. Points don't matter in gameplay, and grades don't matter, either. But when we tweaked the kinds of work he was doing in our Gamifi-ED project to focus on "world-changing games," he was suddenly engaged. Now his face lights up when he sees me. He's one of the first kids to class. He's an engaged gamer and, finally, an engaged student. "

"We are finishing up a big unit on the rainforest. We have learned about the 4 layers, what animals live in each layer, what products we get from the rainforest and how people are destroying the rainforest. We have read books and watched videos. As we finish up this unit, the kids are focusing on one animal they want to learn more about. We have talked about doing research before and we made this anchor chart together: "

"When you need a quick pick-me-up, how much bang for your buck will you get at Starbucks? Chances are you probably order one of a handful of drinks and stick to that group on a regular basis. However, this in-depth chart from Thrillist might help you try something new if you're looking to juice up on the cheap."

"As a 21st century teacher, you probably need to share stuff, and have stuff shared with. "Stuff" like pdfs, various word processing documents, video files, and other digital fare. The traditional way to do this has been email, but limits here-including speed, file size, and the relative clunkiness of sharing with large groups-make sharing files through email less than "best practice." We started to create a chart that listed the nuance details of each platform, from storage and sharing limits, FTPing ability, the need to sign up to use, and password-protecting to flexible expiration dates for rights to files-but then we found that Wikipedia had already done this (and then some). So we instead picked our favorite dozen, and then ranked them in terms of their flexibility and integration that education technology demands. Though most of the tools below can share most files (mp3s, .movs, .mp4s, exe, .zip, .doc and .docx files, .pdfs, etc.), we focused more on documents, images, folders and software integration than incredibly detailed features that may make it overkill for your classrooms."

"Store Van Music embarked on a tour of schools in the UK and help the students create outstanding music using iPads and their minds. Their stated goal is to put a stop to the 80% dropout rate of students in the musical arts. As you can see from their website, they're a passionate bunch with some terrific motivation. They've made another video recently, and within an hour and a half of the release, it reached number 1 in iTunes children's charts. As of this writing, it is the 19th most watched music video in the UK. Talk about cutting-edge, relevant music education! Check out the video below, and use it as a little inspiration when you're not feeling sure that technology is enhancing your classroom!"

"Projecting your iPad on a large screen is great for demonstrations, simulations, explanations, and showing examples. There are several ways this can be done in the classroom. Scroll to the end of this post for a comparison chart."

"Below is a collection of some very good iPad apps to help teachers with  classroom management. Some of the tasks you can do with these apps include: conduct instant formative assessments in class, create seating charts, record class attendance, randomly pick students for classroom participation, create and share permission slips, visualize and assess students understanding, set timed tasks in class, improve students behaviour by providing real-time feedback, poll your students and many more. The apps featured in this list are among the best titles you can find in the category of classroom management. Enjoy"

Take a moment to reflect: How many minilessons have you taught this year that guide students to become effective digital readers? Do you have anchor charts or scaffolds in place that will support them as they attempt to read digitally with independence? Have you provided ample time for them to read diverse genres or self-select their onscreen reading material?

"As part of my research for updating my Makerspace for The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, I went straight to a source that I knew had done a large amount of the work for me already: The Robot Test Kitchen. At RTK, a group of librarians have evaluated a wide variety of technology tools that are typically incorporated into library Makerspaces as part of an iLead project. I highly recommend looking through the side and reading each individual post. However, for my purposes I wanted to create a quick comparison chart to help guide conversation and my own decision making. I used in the information from RTK and put it into a quick reference spreadsheet."