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Every teacher who has attempted to integrate technology into the classroom knows that getting parents on board can sometimes be a challenge. It's not uncommon for the parent of a struggling child to be on the phone with you asking questions like: "Why do you need to use technology to teach math/social studies/English/biology?" or "This is an AP history class  - not computer science!" Your efforts to engage students and develop important 21st century skills can become the scapegoat explanation for problems that have nothing to do with tech. So, how do we as educators get these parents into our corner? Here are some strategies I've used successfully to gain parent buy-in.

"This author's position is that asynchronous online discussions face an array of resolvable pedagogical and course management challenges. Online discussions can transform mere course chatter into a cyber forum of student-centered learning through meticulous planning, designing and orchestrating. After introducing common issues, a literature review summarizes the contributions that online discussions bring to distance learning. The author then addresses pedagogical and managerial issues that plague online discussions with strategies that instructors may readily employ. In the pedagogical realm, these include insights on organizing online discussions, using groups to facilitate interactions, establishing discussion parameters, and ensuring that the course syllabus introduces online discussion details. In the managerial realm, approaches are offered regarding overseeing discussion windows, using icebreakers, assessing student performance, ongoing communications, maintaining an online presence, netiquette, and a variety of other online discussion tips. In support of online instructors, the article weaves in relevant literature with the hard learned lessons from the author's ongoing attempts to improve online discussions. It concludes by urging instructors to cultivate improvement continuously through candid self-critique supplemented by student feedback."

The New Bloom's Taxonomy explained, along with a host of verbs that describe digital applications of the levels. This visual tool will help teachers to determine what behaviors, types of activities, and assignments students might engage in so that they are challenged to reach higher-order thinking and deep, meaningful learning experiences.

"Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix!" Check out the Amazing Fact Generator and The Ultimate Brain Challenge. Fun and engagement for students and adults alike, this site will help you instill a love of learning in your students.

"Practice. Learn. Succeed. ScootPad is the ultimate way to master math and reading skills. Self-paced and personalized practice keeps kids engaged & challenged. Common Core aligned, real-time progress tracking & concept proficiency insigts, paperless homework....Best of all: FREE!"

We believe in: Sharing Technology: Government entities at all levels face substantial yet similar IT challenges. We help them share their solutions. Building Open Platforms: Open architectures foster innovation and create flexibility and efficiency through interoperability. Spreading Knowledge: There is an answer to your question out there somewhere. We'll help you find other's answers and share your own.

Nice because it features audio and also challenges students for look for patterns.

a game where you choose a player to compete with in a spelling contest. Each player chooses from a variety of words and challenges their opponent online to correctly spell the word that is spoken to them in the context of a sentence.

"Faculty development is a crucial and vital component to any college or university. For institutions with geographically dispersed faculty who are teaching online, in some cases for the very first time, faculty development takes on a new level of importance. Here the challenges are not only ensuring instructors understand the technical aspects of teaching online and have the instructional skills to meet online learners' needs, but also instilling a sense of community."

This site offers a growing bank of imaginative, highly visual teaching-aids developed for use with interactive whiteboards in 11-18 Schools. The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity. The appropriate Key Stage is indicated for each resource. It is hoped that the resources will help students to make sense of some of the more challenging concepts they encounter.

"John Taylor, retired superintendent of schools in Lancaster, S.C., offers this history of the above essay which he wrote while leading that district: "The parody was originally titled 'Absolutely the Best Dentists.' It was written and sent to every newspaper and legislator in South Carolina a number of years ago in an attempt to point out the absurdities inherent in South Carolina's then new accountability act which was focused on 'absolute' performance and threatened retention for every child who couldn't meet very challenging grade level standards. (Not to mention severe penalties for 'poorly performing' schools, teachers ands administrators.) Since then it has traveled widely to the point that I have not been able to keep up with the uses; but I know it has appeared in teacher association publications in at least three Canadian Provinces and in Australia, as well as dozens in the USA. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) seems to have given the story a new life." Thus: No Dentist Left Behind. The essay remains on the Lancaster County School District's Web site."

"n Project Based Learning (PBL), students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. While allowing for some degree of student "voice and choice," rigorous projects are carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help students learn key academic content, practice 21st Century Skills (such as collaboration, communication & critical thinking), and..."

Teacher Challenges for 21st Century Learning

"Becoming accustomed as a coach to not having your own classroom or your own students was probably challenging. I am sure, however, you quickly engaged in conversations with your colleagues about offering to demonstrate or co-teach some lessons to those teachers willing to share their students with you. Although alien at first, I'll bet it was very rewarding to work with students again and feel that great "high" that a teacher feels when the lesson worked well. "

Schools are working with a flexible definition of literacy, influenced by established core concepts of media literacy, to: * promote the development of critical thinking skills necessary to independently 'read' & 'write', and make meaning of messages in a variety of forms * promote the basic operational skills, and understanding of the languages necessary to independently 'read' and 'write' effective messages in various forms of media (print, video, audio, etc.) * instill confidence in the ability to adapt those skills and concepts to emerging forms of communication * connect and transfer the fundamentals of literacy to other forms of real world communication and problem solving Challenges & Questions: * How do you fit this into already full school schedules? * If these type of productions do take time from other discipline and skills, is it worth it? * When and how do we train teachers to be confident enough in their own media literacy to fluidly guide students? * Where is the balance that satisfies outcomes schools are traditionally responsible for with the real world needs of our students?

One of the biggest challenges to embracing project-based learning as a teacher, however, is the formidable task of structuring, monitoring, managing and evaluating student work.

Whiteboard challenge wiki

This site contains hundreds of pages of basic math skills, interactive practice, explanations, challenge games and randomly generated math problems.

Nice slide deck and useful questions.

The past few years have seen an explosion of disruptive technologies that challenge the way we think, the way we operate, and the status quo of educational practice. Understandably, critical questions have emerged regarding the use of these technologies in education. Do they actually lead to new literacies, or do they simply provide a new context for the development of skills educators have always valued? What impact are they really having on students and schools? How can organizations implement, evaluate, and sustain these technologies in the service of learning?