Group items tagged

"Reading, writing, and math are no longer the only essential subjects everyone should learn. Today's essential skills include navigating the web, writing code, and engaging with others online. This web literacy map from Mozilla presents activities that cover these 21st-century skills."

" Word Mover is a free iPad app produced by Read Write Think. The app is designed to help students develop poems and short stories. When students open the Word Mover app they are shown a selection of words that they can drag onto a canvas to construct a poem or story. "

Tony Stead is an Australian educator who has taught in elementary schools and lectured at the University of Melbourne. He is the past president of the Melbourne Chapter of the Australian Reading Association and the author of many publications. His latest include Is That a Fact?: Teaching Nonfiction Writing and the video series Time For Nonfiction. which highlights his recent work with several teachers at the Manhattan New School.

"Last night while helping my 8-year-old son do his weekly spelling homework, my 5-year-old, always looking to divert attention his way, told me he'd learnt how to write the letters A and Z while playing an alphabet and phonics learning game on my tablet. "Would you like me to write the big or little A for you?" he asked grinning with self pride. Until recently, there has been little empirical evidence to answer the question everyone's asking about whether these educational Apps kids love playing really do teach them anything. But now there is hard evidence they do. A recent study conducted by New York University shows that a reading and phonics learning App had a measurable impact on the literacy of children."

"Seedling Comic Studio is an iPad app for making comic books.  By combining photographs with backgrounds and stickers, students can tell their own stories.  Graphic novels and comic books are fantastic ways to get students excited about reading.  If you're looking to keep students interested in the writing process, a comic book can be a great final project for a narrative, opinion, or informational piece of writing."

"Welcome to Teen Ink, a national teen magazine, book series, and website devoted entirely to teenage writing, art, photos, and forums. For over 25 years, Teen Ink has offered teens the opportunity to publish their creative work and opinions on issues that affect their lives - everything from love and family to school, current events, and self-esteem. Hundreds of thousands of students, aged 13 -19, have submitted their work to us and we have published more than 55,000 teens since 1989. Distributed through classrooms by English and Art teachers, and available in libraries nationwide, Teen Ink magazine offers some of the most thoughtful and creative work generated by teens today. We have no staff writers or artists; we depend completely on submissions from teenagers around the world for our content. Teen Ink has the largest distribution of any publication of its kind. Teen Ink is devoted to helping teens share their own voices, while developing reading, writing, creative and critical-thinking skills. All proceeds from the print magazine, website and Teen Ink books are used for educational purposes to further our goals."

"Anyone who says you can't apply computational thinking and digital learning strategies to strengthen students' writing skills is wrong. To the contrary, this innovative learning style helps students hone critical-thinking skills across every discipline. In my classroom, I teach students computational thinking through free materials from Ignite My Future in School, a partnership between Tata Consultancy Services and Discovery Education. I especially enjoy using their Curriculum Connectors, online resources for teachers across disciplines to help their students apply computational thinking techniques. The core tenets of computational thinking are the building blocks that help my students become better learners and problem-solvers across every area of their work-from all areas of reading and language arts. Here's how five core computational thinking approaches help my students build stronger critical thinking and writing skills:"

"Forbes' full conversation with ChatGPT, OpenAI's newest natural language model, is pasted below. Each of the college admissions essays took less than 10 minutes to complete. Read our story about ChatGPT's capacity to write college applications here."

"Educators, policy makers and business leaders often fret about the state of math education, particularly in comparison with other countries. But reading comprehension may be a larger stumbling block, writes Motoko Rich in an important article in today's New York Times: "

"There are some great apps available for little ones who are learning their alphabet or are actually learning to read and write. Here are a couple that might work in your classroom."

For teachers in Australia, the long Term Three is drawing rapidly to a close. Indeed as I write this just ten days remain before a two-week break. This is the perfect time to consider a holiday reading list. Just enough time to raid the school library or place an order with your favourite book store. Here is what's currently occupying space on my nightstand. 

"Today, technology is becoming more and more prevalent in education, and that means students are losing the ability to create and invent with their hands because they now have technology such as iPads that do all the creative work for them. Makerspaces are popping up in schools for just that reason - to help students learn by creating and inventing their own learning!"