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This is a great site for anyone interested in learning about infographics. I like the fact that it is a marketing company and they use their actual examples to "sell" their product to others. Visual literacy is another 21st century skill that we should be teaching students especially because we are increasingly asking them to produce their own visuals for their work. Like coding, this could be of interest to many kids if they are exposed to it.

I've been searching for some great examples this week and am really impressed with what I've found on Google and this site. I'm co-teaching an ABC class with an 8th grade teach and am hoping to have students use Newsela articles as the source of the infographic. I did one myself and it's not as easy as it looks. I was surprised that it took me as long as it did, which will help me determine and appreciate how much time this will take students to complete. The challenge is synthesizing the information without using much text. You could easily use Glogster with an assignment like this.

I haven't tested this out yet, but here is a post by. A blogger I follow and respect (Byrne) on a tool that allows you to make your own infographic. http://feedly.com/k/1bKskyv

This site was put together by Garth Holman and Mike Pennington, 2 teachers who are doing amazing work with getting the students to own the learning. I saw some of their presentations at the BLC13 Conference this past July. They are mentioned in Alan November's book "Who Owns the Learning" so it was a treat to meet them in person at the BLC Conference. Lots of great information and inspiration on their website.

Great article/infographic regarding Copyright in Education. Helps to explain copyright issues in a digital world.

Interesting - it looks like this company is trying to make a tablet that is tailored for education. I like this idea because the iPads seem to be designed to profit the Apple company, which makes some things (such as the lack of Flash compatibility) a hindrance in the classroom.

We actually met with the rep from this company last spring. He was at MassCUE as well. At the time we could not purchase any of the tablets. They were in the beta stage. When I saw the rep at MassCUE, he mentioned that they applied many of the suggestions we made when he showed us the tablet last spring. The interesting piece was that we still are not able to purchase them yet!

Having access to a tablet specifically designed for education would be beneficial. ipads are great, but like you said, something like the lack of Flash Player can be frustrating. With increasing use of technology in schools, the devices will hopefully get more educator friendly.

The importance of asking students GREAT questions to help them understand how to use the Internet properly. There is a lot of history propaganda and misinformation out there. How do we help kids sort it all out?

This is a persuasive blog on what we should strive for in our classrooms each day. The author, Starr Sackstein - a NYC high school English teacher, suggests that we strive to graduate students "life-ready." My favorite sentence: "Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as technology and media integration illustrates a readiness for adult life."

Janet, thanks for sharing this important reminder about the core of what we're doing. I get nervous sometimes for my LLD 10th graders and MCAS, but that's mostly because the stakes are so high for them. They are engaged with the literature we read, questioning, challenging, connecting to their own experiences, and this is, of course, what I would hope for. I am counting on this depth to take them through MCAS - it is really hard not to worry, though!

This is a short lesson developed for Pearson to consolidate some clear, useful structures for activating students in the classroom. Some of it is definitely more geared towards Language Arts, but it's worth a look for approaches to take in any class, and is a good reminder of some of those methods we learned back when we were learning to teach.

Thought this was a great lead in to vacation. I have visited the one in Austin, TX when I lived in Dallas, but I have not been to any others.

Some nights I am so tired and don't want to read to my daughters, but I always do anyway. Lately my pre-K-er is pointing out her "sight words" while we read too. I know it is important bonding time for us, but it also makes a big difference for her long term learning. This infographic explains it all.

I love this visual! Whenever parents ask me what they can do at home to help their child, I tell them to read, read, read! Not only is it building their literacy skills, but kids also love being read to. No matter how crazy my class gets, and it gets pretty crazy sometimes, the minute I start reading a good book all my students are quiet and engaged. Whenever it's time to start a new topic or concept I try and find a good book to introduce it to the kids and they always seem to get more from it than I planned!

Great article. I second what Kelly said. We always tell parents to read to their children, no matter how old they are. This is always an interesting conversation with third grade parents as they want their children to read on their own. Then we further explain why reading to them is important and see their "aha" moment.

Great article with wonderful ideas for teaching students how to read expository text.

The text feature walk is a great strategy for teaching how photos, graphs, maps, and charts contribute to the understanding of the text. It is also a great way to predict main idea prior to reading. Very helpful. Thanks Kerry.

Nothing earth shattering in this article, but a good reminder to think outside the box when it comes to asking students to demonstrate understanding of what they're reading. I love the movie trailer idea, and the kids have shown they can do some amazing things with iMovie. I'm also interested in exploring some of the apps that the author says would allow students to put characters into new settings - it may be a neat way for them to demonstrate deep understanding of character's personality and motives.

Julie, I agree that these projects are interesting and also that kids like doing them. But...always...I wonder... do they really get kids more interested in reading or do they really just help kids get through the monotony of assessing reading? I think the latter goal is a worthy one and I do feel that kids get something out of these projects.researching, writing and collaborating. Even when I was a student, I used to wonder about these questions. Outside my school life, my reading was so rich and varied. English classrooms to me seemed places devoid of books and the discussion of books that took place in my home. So I don't think think this is a new question, but I like to think of the primacy of helping kids finding books they love as well as giving them a place to discuss them.

Written by Mr. Walter Dean Myers for the New York Times, this might be worth sharing with students in preparation for Mitali Perkins' author visit in May. This is a subject that she cares deeply about, and I'm sure it will be a focus for her when she speaks to our students

Changing teaching practices with mobile devices is hard. Here is a story of how one teacher stepped out of his comfort zone. BTW 2eyes is not a mobile app.

Janet, this is a great reminder of some basic teaching practice that goes a long way, no matter what the technology is - pretty funny!

I read a similar article a few weeks ago that cites Carl Hooker as coining the phrase "two eyes, two feet app" (see http://www.edudemic.com/5-tips-classroom-management-mobile-devices/) and it made me giggle a little. Monitoring student use of mobile devices is not an exact science. Will they text? Check Twitter? Check their make up in the camera app? Sure, at one point or another they likely will, but does that mean they are not using the tool academically? I think teaching students how to manage their attention while we are supervising them is much better than zero tolerance rules that deny them the ability to use the power of the mobile device in the classroom at all. It is just another media literacy lesson.

This is a presentation put together by some middle school English teachers in the UK. There are some good ideas and interesting graphics-based resources for teaching and structuring various writing activities.

AnneMarie, This presentation is a good way for anyway who is thinking about class blogs to get started. It has some good ideas on how to begin and what to emphasize with students. Another idea is to participate in the Student Blogging Challenge this March. My class just finished the fall challenge. I would be happy to share our experience, if you are interested. http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/category/september-2013/

This is so well written and so well explained that I feel like I want to drop everything I'm doing today and share it with my students

Steve, I'm so glad you came across this, and shared it. I especially love the Nonfiction sentence frames that can be used in the classroom. It gives the kids a structured start to looking at the language used in nonfiction writing. I also like how the article writes about empowering the reader through being able to discern the point of view and bias that may be present. It reinforces the message that just because something is in print, doesn't mean that it's true, and also forces students to interact with the text not only to make meaning, but to truly understand the purpose behind what they're reading.

You said it bro. Uncovering bias is a very sophisticated skill, probably the hardest to teach because bias can be so subtle. My 9th graders will love this. Thanks for sharing.

"Doctopus" is a script that makes it easy for students to submit assignments via Google drive, and it allows you to send them feedback. This looks very useful for what we are trying to do will Google Docs!

Jake, have you tried this out at all yet? It does look like it might be useful. We have been using google docs in 6th and I've done some commenting on student work. So far I've just used the commenting tool right on a google document and it appears to the right of the students work. They can comment back to me, and if it's something to do with editing, I can click "resolved" when the issue has been addressed, and I believe the comment goes away. I'd be curious to see the advantages that using Doctopus may have over just responding right on the google doc? I do agree with the blogger, however, that it's so much easier not having to track and carrying home the papers when you know you can just access everything through google drive. It makes it easier for the students, too, which is especially great for kids with organization and management issues.

I heard this on the way to soccer this morning. It speaks to the idea of "fake writing days" that create for the sake of data. - Steve. "Want to do well on the essay portion of the SAT? Just make it up! Scott Simon speaks to English professor Anne Ruggles Gere of the University of Michigan who says that the college entrance exam is turning out a generation of bad writers who are fast and loose with the facts."

I agree that students should know how computers work and that the "Hour of Code" was a good experience for many students, but I think the focus of schools should begin with web literacy, typing, and how to use basic programs such as Word.

If we look at computer programming/coding as a replacement of the skills you mentioned we will not serve the students of today or the future. The skills you mention are valuable in and of themselves but many of these block based coding applications offer a platform for students to express creativity, develop problem solving and collaboration skills, as well as expose kids to an expanding field of study and career.

Why pit those skills against each other? I don't think you can have one without the other.

At the risk of Evernote overkill, this is a good overview of some of the most useful aspects of Evernote. I was particularly happy to see that someone has developed a web clipper app for Android and iOS.

If we do another edcamp session in EBTL2, I'd love to see how some of you are using Evernote on a regular basis. I have an account and some familiarity with it, but would like to use it more. I had a former student come to see me yesterday to give me a lesson and show me how he's using it in different classes in 7th grade. There seems to be a lot of great potential.

Evernote says they want to be people's brains. When they put it that way, I get a little nervous.