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I'll be presenting at the Blue Ribbon Confernece next week (along with several other people in our cohort). For part of our presentation, I asked my sixth graders questions about their thoughts on our classroom iPads and other technology we use in the classroom. I was happy to see that all of my students seemed to be enthusiastic about and enjoying some of the changes I've made this year! Some of the topics included are apps students find helpful, how we've been using Google Drive, and now having a set of iPads on our team has enhanced learning in all their classes - not just ELA.

A cautionary reminder about crafting presentations from Seth Godin, the prolific author of 21st century ideas for marketing and work in general. Seth's blog has been in existence since the 90's and provides a great deal of insight and humor.

This powerful spoken word video was one of Edutopia's "8 EduWins of 2013." As an educator, it made me think about the messages that I give to my students on a daily basis, and how important it is that we don't just fall into the trap of the way things have always been done. Students today need to see the relevance of their learning; they want to know how and when they will apply skills and information. Worth watching.

I found this video along with another Spoken Word video "Why I Hate School But Love Education," extremely powerful and captivating. The message is exactly what we are talking about in class and trying to change in our classrooms. The whole presentation of the video was motivating as well. I really enjoyed listening to him speak and agreed with his points. His presentation in the first video is what made click on the others. Both videos are definitely worth watching.

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.

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/

Perhaps you've come across Greg at MassCUE presenting on iPads in the classroom, or perhaps you're familiar with his blog "The History 2.0 Classroom" at http://kulowiectech.blogspot.com/. This is a new site of his that is documenting "the process of only using an iOS device for one month." A few posts in, and there are already some great demos for using iPads for classroom work flow.

This was a very interesting article. Greg was able to complete many tasks using his iOS device. I noticed he used quite a few Google tools to complete them. I agree there are some good examples of work flow for iPads here, which I find is always a challenge, but never impossible!

This is a thought-provoking article about the effects that our kids may be experiencing from use of handheld devices when very young. It's a question that I've had for a while about relative benefits of technology for very young kids. What do people think?

This could be an interesting debate topic. While I don't necessarily agree with some of the points made in the article, I do sometimes wonder how much overuse of technology is contribute to higher rates of ADHD or ADD. I don't have any hard and fast evidence, but based on what I see in the classroom, it seems difficult for students to "slow down" and focus on any activity for long periods of time. They so used to jumping from one thing to another, or texting on their phone while talking to a friend, that they're never really present in the moment, or focused solely on what's in front of them. I also notice it with myself. Having an ipad or cell phone or laptop at a meeting, it's hard to always stay focused on what's going on, especially when work emails are coming in that seem to need your immediate attention. It's definitely hard to shut off or disconnect. However, I also remember someone sharing in class thoughts from Tony Wagner's book that screen time in school where kids are working collaboratively on a project, or experiencing things that they can only experience with technology, is vastly different from playing video games, or watching TV/movies in a more isolated setting. Technology can be instrumental in learning, and I don't see how it wouldn't remain part of instruction in elementary schools. Maybe the debate is more in the quality of how it's used? Good food for thought; thanks for sharing!

I agree that this is a great topic to debate. As with with most things there are positives and negatives that both make sense. I agree with Julie that maybe the question should focus on the quality and quantity of how these devices are used with children under 12.

eSchoolNews is a monthly publication that comes to me via email (I'm sure many of you receive it) that is chock full of articles about technology in education. September's issue covered many topics but one in particular stood out to me, Does Research Support Flipped Learning?, intrigued me because the sub title suggests that it might work and improve student learning. A few key points include "Students are actively involved in their own learning.." and in many cases this method "..maximizes time with the instructor and increases the focus on higher-order thinking skills." WOW! Those are two of my favorite skills for students to master. The article also points out four essential elements of a flipped classroom - cleverly calling them the "four pillars of F-L-I-P" (Flexible Environment, Learning Culture, Intentional Content, Professional Educators.) A short article that does a good job of highlights the trend of a flipped classroom.

I flipped my intro to library. I really loved the format of Monday night's class and immediately flipped my intro to library to Advisory Research Challenge: Locating and Evaluating Information. Six research challenges, one that everyone had to do and the rest in pairs. The focus was on RMHS and RPL resources for RMHS students, which are many and varied and very sophisticated. Total fun. Time flew. Kids had to dive in, do the research and then present. It was so apparent to discern what needed to be clarified and/or emphasized. Thanks G-Dawg1

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.

This is a piggy-back to the video posted earlier that encourages girls to become engineers. We attended this event, which has been run every year for the past 16 years, and we saw about 25 individual "Rube Goldberg" contraptions joined together into one giant chain reaction that went around the perimeter of the MIT gymnasium. Anyone can enter a project, and many kids were there presenting their projects. MIT does events for kids every 2nd Friday as well. Looks like something very interesting to check out; we had a fantastic, weird time!

TED-Ed was mentioned in at least two different workshops I attended at MassCue. We're all familiar with TED Talks; this takes a similar idea and moves it towards kid-friendly videos, lessons, and quick assessments. One example that I saw was a third grade teacher using a YouTube video (which works along with TED-Ed) about the phases of the moon for the students to watch at home. The website includes a "Flip this Video" button so that teachers can assign a short video for students to watch at home, along with quiz questions as they watch. This could be a great tool for flipping the classroom. Each time I heard it mentioned, the presenters commented on the quality of videos. In addition to using YouTube videos, TED-Ed is pairing up good teacher lessons with animators and visual artists to create a video library that teachers can access for free. I believe you can also suggest or submit a lesson idea that they will consider for a future video. Definitely worth checking out. The URL listed above takes you to a short video explaining the website.

I've started playing around with this site and it's great! I'm looking forward to using some of these as I begin to flip my classroom this year.

A Somali student writes a guest post for a blogger I follow. She explains that social media is already present in schools, whether teachers are using it or not. Teachers have an opportunity to help students broaden their understanding of any topic through social media, and they should take advantage of it.

This is a great news and current events site for kids. The site is organized by topic and by month/year. The articles contain links to related information which can be used for further research. Information is easy to find. The presenter at MassCUE who talked about the site used it in second grade, but children in older grades will definitely enjoy it too.