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Importance of social networking not only for teachers but students as well. Very interesting..

This article brings up some really good points about the types of skills students need and how educators can make sure they are developing theses skills. Having students design and participate in PLCs is a great way to start developing the skills that are going to be essential in their future. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting article, Meg. I started following the guy that was mentioned, Paul Moss, on twitter, and hope to get some good ideas. I love the idea of starting to get kids networking in an educational way. They are already experts on doing it socially! If we have another EdCamp format, I'd love to have a discussion about what PLNs could mean for students, even as young as middle school.

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

Useful information on measuring student growth. (Pre/Post, Repeated Measures, Holistic, Post Only)

Thank you for sharing this, Steve. I found it very useful and I'm going to pass it on to the other 6th grade ELA and special education teachers. This guide works well with our focus for the in-service day on Tuesday. We decided that our focus during the morning sessions was going to be on scoring samples of student work to make sure there is consistency among how we are scoring, and then use the second block to determine anchor papers that represent different levels of achievement. As a special education teacher, I was initially apprehensive about this process of DDMs. This was addressed in the guide, as many teachers who teach students with learning differences are concerned about being evaluated on student performance. However, if the DDMs truly look at student progress, based on where they started, and keep it focused on the individual's growth, then I do believe that it will be a more equitable measure for assessing teachers. One question that still remains is what accommodations are allowed when administering DDMs. In sixth grade there were questions about whether it was strictly MCAS accommodations, or whether we were allowed to read the articles to the students since we were measuring writing. It's something that still needs to be worked out in this pilot year. Thanks again for making this available for others to use.

Beth Holland is an insightful, creative educator who I saw at MassCUE yesterday so I decided to follow her and see what else she had to say. This is an interesting and insightful discussion of the potential positives and negatives of screen time. A good reminder to keep it meaningful, and as we have all said, avoid "technology for the sake of technology." "Television rots your brain." In a similar vein, video games turn your mind to mush, and staring at a screen for too long potentially makes you a zombie. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a report suggesting that children under two should not have any screen time.

The three questions this article asks are something I think a lot about when using the iPads in my classroom. Last year when I first started using them in my classroom they were mostly being used as mobile educational gaming devices. The kids were using apps that reinforced the phonics and math concepts we were learning, but they weren't really going anything further than that. They certainly were engaged and learning so I don't feel that it was time wasted, however I always knew there was more they could be doing with the devices. The third piece, is it empowering, was the piece I was missing last year and am trying to incorporate more this year.

Great article. I agree there needs to be a balance with screen time and how we should use that time. The 3 questions of screen time being appropriate, meaningful, and empowering are key to allowing students take charge of their learning. The article states "… teachers had found educational apps to reinforce math and reading concepts, the students passively interacted with content rather than constructing understanding. The interaction primarily consisted of students just tapping on a screen." I feel it is important for us to limit these types of apps and find the few that are going to allow students to "construct understanding" and apply content they learn outside of screen time. To me, this strikes a good balance. At MassCUE this past Thursday, I attended a session by a district that made the decision to use apps that allowed for creativity. They recognized that there were many apps for gaming and skill drills, but they wanted their students to be able to use their devices to apply learning in a meaningful way. This was music to my ears. I applaud their efforts, and based on the examples of student work that were shown, it's working.

I am looking to get my students involved in using Skype to connect with other schools and people in the United States and around the world. In the process of searching for different programs I came across this article about an Australian school that connected with students at a Ugandan refugee camp. "Here & There is aimed at raising awareness around issues facing refugees among Australian schoolchildren, their parents and the wider population. It is purpose-designed to dovetail with the Australian geography curriculum, ensuring participating children attain maximum educational benefit while undertaking this life-changing opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences with children who have very different lives." I would love to get my students involved in something like this so that they can get a deeper understanding of another culture and make connections. I would be interested to hear if anyone has any experince with something like this and could offer suggestions. Thanks!

Hi Chis, I would love to work on this with you - with the iPads you have it should be easy to do.. Let me know when you are planning on doing it.. ~Meg

Written by a professor at Framingham State. A nice reflection of the benefits and pitfalls of blogging in the classroom. Something I need to work on is how to continue to assign writing (the more practice they get the better they get at it) without making it so overwhelming for me to give meaningful feedback. Also, he talks about how it is hard to get students to comment on one another's posts and how to monitor it online.

This was great to read (and a little satisfying) as these are exactly the same stuggles I face using blogs with my students. Practice has always been a main focus. We always talk about giving students as many "at bats" as possible, but like it was mentioned, with more writing offering quality feedback for every piece is sacrificed. I've experimented with different methods to offset this, but nothing is sticking yet. The student commenting piece is also frustrating because so much scaffolding and monitoring needs to be done for students to do it well that you have to set aside more class time than you have. I would have thought at the college level this would be easier to manage, but apparently not.

"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.

How to break through what seems like opposition or apathy. Decent advice. Not fool-proof, but not bad at all. "It's easy to say that students lie to teachers all the time. Frankly, everyone, including teachers, has a lie in them, and these untruths keep the schooling process rolling along. When adults say, for instance, that they develop rules with the students, chances are that students often develop rules that teachers already thought of anyway."

This is a great site for teachers to teach students about copyright and begin conversations about intellectual property.

I've been using this site with middle school student for a few years to help teach copyright. It's written in kid-friendly language (middle school) and has lots of resources for teaches who might need a refresher course for themselves. There is an interactive quiz that sparks lots of conversation around intellectual property and fair use. The site is easy to navigate though beware there seem to be a few broken links.

Thanks for sharing this Robyn, I found this site informative and I like that the language is appropriate for middle schoolers. I just took the "Copyright Challenge" quiz and ended up learning a few things! For example, I didn't realize that an essay you write is protected by copyright law as soon as you write it down because that makes it "Fixed in a Tangible Form of Expression." I understand that Fair Use is a defense to copyright infringement but I am still a little unsure about how much of a work you can use before it can no longer be defended by fair use. I guess there is no easy answer to that question because it depends on the situation. I can definitely see myself using the interactive quiz with my students.

We've all experienced difficult student behaviors in our classrooms; at least some of it seems to go with the territory. But it's important for us to try to understand why our students may be acting the way they are and try to meet them where they are. I used some of these approaches in my classroom, and what I discovered led me to use 1:1 iPad technology to help differentiate for my students and meet them where they are educationally. This article has some very helpful, practical approaches to functional behavioral assessment.

Thanks for sharing this. I like language, checklists, forms, etc that can change our team meetings in middle school from endlessly perseverating on one child to no avail to actually creating an action plan.

Hi Annemarie. This is very helpful for me, as "special education" strategies are a big gap in my learning, although these seem like the mainstream would also benefit. I find this really good for classroom management and for setting a welcoming vibe. As a specialist, I'm often having to create buy-in with near strangers because I'm assisting a class. While I'm positive and empathetic by nature, here are some concrete things that I can do to make sure I don't lose students along the way.

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

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.

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.

During Monday's class I overheard Sharon Burke talk about the possibility (or probabilty?) of the high school getting a 3D printer. I heard her say that one of the kids really wanted it "because it was fun". This article about a middle school experience with their 3D printer included the beliefs of play, passion and purpose. One of the students featured even wrestled with persistance. I hope we hear more about this 3D printer in the future and how our students are using it for their learning opportunites.

We wrote an REF grant and given how cool this technology is and the extensive cross curricula application, I will be very surprised if REF doesn't fund it. It has relevance in almost every subject. So let's make a little bet: if they fund it, I owe you a coffee--if they don't, you owe me. :)

This is a blog written by a high school teacher who is using Evernote for the entire scope of his classroom workflow. He creates documents in Evernote, shares them with his students, and has set up capability for them to share with him to turn in work. Worth a read!

Thanks for this, Anne Marie. I just added this teacher's blog to my Feedly. I'd be curious to discuss Evernote with you further some time and see how you use it with students, if you currently do? I saw some neat ways to use it at MassCue and want to try it further with my students. However, we're also trying to have them use Google for many things, since they have easy access at home, and I'm trying to figure out which is a more comprehensive tool for students, and which would be easier for them to navigate - both at school, and at home. It's so great to have all of these tools, but I also don't want to overwhelm them with too many accounts.

The NYTimes' new feature, the Text to Text series, matches Times content with excerpts from often-taught literary, cultural, historical or scientific material. Their goal is, "to show students how relevant what they study in school can be to the real world." The series is an excellent resource for teachers who are trying to add more nonfiction texts to their classroom and also has links to graphic organizers for comparing texts, close reading and analyzing primary sources. From what I've seen so far, the topics are a little advanced for sixth graders and are probably better suited for high school students. That being said, the Times is encouraging teachers to submit ideas for new editions!

Interesting read on how Kindergarten is the new first grade. I know that in my 18 years teaching that I have seen this shift. Things that I used in my first grade classroom are now being used in Kindergarten.

Thanks for sharing Kerry! I was actually just having this conversation with a colleague at lunch today following our curriculum and instruction meeting. We were reviewing the DIBBLES scores and discussing the kids that were in the yellow and discussing how we can get these "struggling" students to green. The piece that was not noted or discussed was that most of these kids were in the red at the beginning of the year. Of course we need to talk about how to continue to support all students, but I feel like we are focusing only on getting them to the green and not taking the time to recognize how successful and how much progress they have made this far. Some of these kids knew 4 letters and no sounds at the beginning of the year and now can name all the letters and their sounds, but are having trouble with newly introduced skills like blending and segmenting words. That is a lot of progress in just one area, never mind their progress in other areas. I don't know that I have personally progressed that much in any are of my life in the last year, never mind the last five months. On the other hand there are definitely kids in my class that are ready to or are reading and need to be pushed and challenged. My concern isn't that the standards are unrealistic, it's that it is unrealistic of us to expect that all kids will meet them at the same time and if they don't meet them in our set time frame we consider them to be a struggling student. As a result we push them harder and make them do more work with a skill that they might just not be ready for.

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.

I loved this commentary posted on Education Week. It talks about the importance of giving students unstructured time on a regular basis, and expanding recess or time for physical activity. As the author states, "Kids are built to move. Having more time for unstructured outdoor play is like handing them a reset button." This author also spent six weeks in Finland studying their education system. They seem to be achieving greater success with less class time, and more built in natural breaks. This is worth reading.

I wish we had more down time and outside time as well during the day. We barely get it all in as it is with one recess, but maybe going outside or having downtime will help them retain more day to day.

I'm so glad you posted this article, Julie. I think it is so important to continue examining not just what we teach, but how we teach it. My son shifted this January to the Waldorf school in Lexington, in part because he is a very physical learner, who is interested in the arts, music, and practical arts, but also because he was just sitting too much of the day, focusing almost exclusively on reading and math skills. In his new school, they practice counting and multiplication tables while jumping rope on teams, for example. It's not recess, but it is physical activity, it's fun, and it really reinforces and connects the math skill they are working on. I hear many examples like this from him each week, and it has really inspired me to try to incorporate similar approaches, even (or maybe especially?) with my 9th graders.

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.