Group items tagged

"Sometimes we just need to forget the curriculum, the standards, the test prep and interject some fun, some inspiration, some motivation into our daily routines. Well, I can't think of a better way to do so than via the super popular Kid President videos."

"This infographic paints a very interesting picture on the relationship between social media and our students. This provides more justification on why we need to teach the proper ways of using social media to our students."

"Every teacher knows that visual aids are a good way to facilitate the learning process and grab students' attention for a long time. Educators use different posters, videos, slideshows to explain a new topic, provide more details or even test students. Presentations take a prominent part in the visual aids collection. Their main benefit is that teachers can combine various types of content in one presentation: text, images, video clips, music. Saved in a video format, presentations can be easily shown in class, uploaded to YouTube, embedded into a school website, or shared on any other educational resource."

"Happy Tuesday, edtech fans! Yeah, I realize we're about 72 hours from having a TGIF moment, but the good news is you have three days left in the week to incorporate this super cool tool into classroom activities! So, here it is: The next time you need an engaging prewriting or postreading activity for your students, then be sure to check out the Cube Creator from ReadWriteThink, an interactive that provides students with a visual organizer to summarize information in one of the following categories:"

" Pete Jones"

Never mind the digital divide, it is the distraction divide from which we need to protect our students.

Why the cloud's important for education

"After teaching grades 7 and 8 for seven years, it was a challenge for me to go down to Kindergarten. The first few months, the way was treacherous. Now looking back, after eight months or so, I can say overall it has been a delight, and I know it was a gift I didn't even know I needed. I find I can practice what I learned in my Master's program; that is, teaching young children literacy. Most importantly, though, the children are "wonderful, marvelous, beautiful, magical, filled with curiosity and dreams." (Lyrics by Debbie Clement) They are loving and open. They are learning sponges with big, growing brains. But how can I do genius hour with them? I wondered. I loved the engaged ownership in junior highers when they were given a chance to learn what they wanted in what we call genius hour."

"eople like maps. Give them a book with a map in the front, like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, and they will interrupt their regularly-scheduled reading happily to check out where the newly-mentioned river, mountain, or fjord is. It stands to reason, then, that people would enjoy making maps, too. And in this post on how to create effective homework (excuse me while I turn off the oxymoron alarms), Dan Bisaccio, former high school science teacher and now Director of Science Education at Brown University, discusses homework that might just be, if you'll excuse the audacity, fun."

"Write About is a new site co-founded by educator John Spencer (his name may be familiar with readers since I've previously shared his work many times here). His co-founder is Brad Wilson. And they've created what might be the Education Site of 2014. Write About provides many (and I mean many) images with writing prompts. Students can write their response and do an audio recording of it. Teachers can create virtual classrooms and provide individual written feedback to student writing. Student creations can be shared publicly or just with their classmates. Teachers can change prompts or upload their own photos."

"Innovation… Versatility… Performance… What teacher doesn't want to provide the best technology has to offer for students? But with a plethora of choices, sometimes it's overwhelming trying to determine what device best suits the needs of all learners. So, what should educators choose-the power of a laptop or the compact, lightweight portability of a tablet? Well, it's no longer necessary to settle for one option when the best of both worlds are at your fingertips. Yep, it's true. With the latest and greatest technologies currently available on the market, students now have access to the functionality of a laptop while also having the capability of completing captivating assignments and/or creating meaningful content via a tablet. And better yet: The instruction and learning goals can dictate the type of device being used as opposed to the reverse, which typically occurs in classrooms today. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm referring to a super cool technology known as the 2-in-1. Whether your students need to generate a document or spreadsheet, transfer files, read an e-book, capture photos or create media, this hybrid does it all with just one simple twist, click or flip. Not only is this option flexible and convenient, but cost-effective as well because schools no longer need to provide students with more than one device to achieve desired outcomes. It's really all that-and much more!"

"You may have already heard about PhotoMath, the new iPhone app that lets you point it at a math problem on a textbook and then solves it while showing all the work involved. Some are immediately reacting by citing it's potential use in "cheating," while others cheer that it might force math teachers and textbook publishers to be more creative in how they teach math. In some ways, it may force them to do what some of us in other subjects have been looking at - creating unGoogleable questions. Here are some useful posts about the app, along with a video. "

"Well, you can't get to May and June without going through April, which means yes-you'll most likey have to endure some of those harmless pranks and hoaxes associated with April Fool's Day-spiders in your desk, a plastic snake on your chair, or some mystery student messing with your computer mouse via a USB remote. Um, yep-I'm speaking from experience. So, if you're one of those educators who enjoys having a little bit of fun with your students, then check out the resources below."