Group items tagged

How to use Google Hangouts in the Classroom. Now that you can segment participation and let certain groups of students and educators participate in Google Plus, this is becoming a popular method of connecting classrooms. I'm setting up Google Hangouts on Air to record and send to the class YouTube channel to share conversations with guests and let those students who missed the day join in. I am also going to use these recordings as part of flipped classroom modules as I learn about using Sophia for flipping my classroom.

The ICTmagic 2013 Advent Calendar - Another 25 great seasonal games and resources for your class.

IF you use Google Hangouts, you'll want to check out Google moderator which lets you ask questions and people can suggest answers and vote up answers. You can use this in class as well.

Another exciting tool to use for the Hour of Code - there is a free module anyone can use, but if you purchase the class option you can track and you can use real names and other options for programming. You might want to try it and see what your students think.

An important conversation with interviews and some research about how to deal with multitasking. AS for me, if I could really really turn off notifications on my ios devices, that would suffice and it would for most students.

As a mother of a daughter who is applying to Georgia Tech in Computer Science, this is important. My daughter's life was changed when I had her use Kodu in class, write a program and win an NCWIT award. She was on a panel with Sylvia Martinez at ISTE about encouraging more girls into STEM and really realized that she liked Computer Science and would at least try it as a major. She said until she saw people talk about it and realized she could code, she had no idea that it was something she could do and like. Girls who code is a group that works to encourage girls to enter computing fields.

Hi Vicki. It's been my experience that students (boys and girls) who are exposed to programming in elementary school and then have it as part of the school IT curriculum are far more likely to stay the course through to high school and beyond. Some of my best programmers at Middle School have been Gr. 6 girls, a few of whom continued on to complete AP level programming, undergrad and graduate work in Comp Sci. Papert's work with LOGO pointed the way, ALICE and Scratch are there to play. Just need to keep programming in the curriculum so that students (boys and girls) know that it's a valued academic skill and not just a preserve for hobbiests and tinkerers.

Design an avatar to use in creative writing or class name cards for students with this avatar creator. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Great advice from Nicholas Provenzano about failure: "What I am not saying is that teachers should leave students on their own to figure everything out and sit back and watch them fail on exams or essays. Teachers still need to guide their students and let them explore learning, but you have to let them try new things and learn through trial and error. The error part is the thing people are starting to forget. In the rush to get through content, it's easier to give students the answers instead of letting them discover them on their own through hard work.  As you work in your class this year, try to take a step back when a student fails the first time. Assure them they can come up with the right answer on their own if they try a couple of times. Offer them strategies on how to approach problems in different ways to get new outcomes. "

With 1.4 billion adults over age 20 who are obese, these are things we should educate everyone about. Great information for a health or biology class and also for teachers to read as we think about our own health in a very high pressure job. "High blood pressure, serum cholesterol and blood glucose explain approximately 50% of the increased risk of heart disease and three-quarters of the increased risk of stroke among overweight or obese individuals, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet."

CO14 is happening this weekend and so many great people are presenting. It runs from February 7-9 and is free. My session is sharing how writing has been reinvented as I share the 9 tools that have changed how we teach forever (a sneak preview of my book coming out in May.) If you teach writing, work with curriculum or teach, feel free to join in. The session is at 8 am EST on Saturday morning, February 8. Anyone can join. Lots of amazing presenters are speaking so check it out.

Amazing Apple and Android app which allows you to take a poll from your class instantly using the camera on your device. Your students simply hold up the symbol for the multiple choice answer they wish to give. The app logs how many answered each choice, but also who chose which answer - Making assessment and feedback easy. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Marking your mark and personalising your class

Interesting Digital Concept map from Amal Abouldhosn and her class as they discuss media. She says "my students were born in 1998, so they've never really lived on a planet without cell phones or internet." This is a great way to brainstorm and discuss such topics- especially ones where the students have a lot of personal knowledge.

Create video based quizzes with this useful site and share them online with your class. Search for YouTube videos within the site and crop the section you what to use. Then enter your questions and multiple correct & wrong choices to build the quiz. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

NYT article on coding movement, focusing on Mill Valley, CA. Coding should be taught in all schools.

Just you, your class and your brain power

Haiku Deck is one of my all time favorite quick presentation makers when I just have to share something meaningful with my class and only have a few moments to pull it together. (For example, if I realize that students don't know something valuable, etc.) One of the best things about Haiku Deck is its incredible search feature for Creative Commons and automatic citation. If you're 1:1 ipad, this free app is a must have. They are beta testing and online version that should be available soon. Great tool.

A new website that is easy to align to standards (and share information with other teachers) with your students as you give "exit tickets" but also other activities during class. I like how easy it is to share your questions with other teachers. I'm still testing and learning this system but am impressed that this is an alternative for student response systems that some may want to test as well. For those who do data driven decision making, this is a must test.

My students love the Dragon Dictation app. It is free. Learn to talk into the app and you can dictate papers and more. They were so excited when I taught them how to use this app. It is a must share because students who are more verbal often prefer to dictate papers rather than type them. When I demo this app, first I open it and dictate things - saying funny things about the class and they see the words. Then, I dictate again but start saying "period" "comma" and "new paragraph" so they see how it can add those things to the text. I always end by saying "And ____ ran out of the room today screaming quote I'm afraid of zombies exclamation point end quote." Then I stop and they see how all of the punctuation works. This is a great app and an important one for all tablet and smartphone users.