EBTL2

Real life skills that I certainly did not learn from school. I think my parents taught me most of them. Others I had to self-teach. The rest I still don't know how to do! Should schools teach these skills? Or should they be parents' responsibility?

The coding caught my eye as we have had a push in the last month or so to expose students to more computer science opportunities. That's a good example of something we should be teaching in school. Teaching any of these concepts in school isn't a bad idea, but what would it replace? Kids could easily practice some of these basic, practical skills within their own families.

Good to know that our business and technology curriculum is relevant. We teach taxes, budgeting, finance, coding, resume building to those who take our electives. I actually had RWPS students come to me this morning asking if it would be viable to teach a business elective on sutainability.

I'm not sure I agree with the cons here, at least at the high school level. If students want to cheat they will find a way to cheat, whether they have technology or not. They need to learn from those poor choices and mature over time. As far as distractions go, I'd rather have a student respond quickly to a text and move on with their work on their phone in my class than to forbid them from using the powerful tools on the phone entirely.

We have just started teaching informative writing. This guide has great information, some of it grade specific, on why and how to teach this type of writing.

Thanks for sharing this, Jan. I can see how it will be a helpful tool. I like the Thinking Maps that apply to different writing purposes - reminds me a bit of the EmPOWER writing program.

This reminds me how much I respect K-3 and elementary teachers in general. The fundamentals are so important. Thanks for posting this. I'm excited that Common Core emphasizes expository writing. I find it somewhat disingenuous that a lot of high school language arts curriculum is based on analyzing fiction and works of literature, and "proving" theses that are up for interpretation. Expository writing can be so interesting and when inspired by passion for the subject matter, powerful.

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. :)

I've thought a lot about this topic and how BYOD makes it so plain which students are haves and which are have-nots. We are lucky to be in the cohort and to have supplemental devices in our classrooms. How can we make BYOD more universal without making economic inequity so obvious in more classrooms. It seems unrealistic to put 10 iPads in every classroom district wide, so what is the answer?

Kerry, This is a really important article, and I'm so glad you posted it. I'm acutely aware of inequity in my classroom as well, but because I teach smaller classes, I've been able to skirt it so far. I agree that it is important to raise the question so that we can discuss it openly. It's bound to spark passionate opinions and discussions, but the issue of access is one of social justice in a way, and I agree that it's important for us to address it as much as we can in the public school setting.

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 like to hold and read a book, but I do read a lot on my nook. I much prefer the nook to the iPad because of size and weight. It was interesting to read this article and see how the younger generation prefers a book in hand considering how many carry iPhones, etc. and are constantly logged in.

Wow, I thought for sure that kids would naturally gravitate to the e-books. My family loves the kindle. I tend to get digital books myself but I realized it is more because I can listen to them during my commutes via bluetooth. I'm going to have to poll my niece and nephew on this topic. Thanks for sharing the article Kerry.

Interesting article that discusses augmentation of the writing process with using the iPad. I think I need to try MindMeister with some students!

Interesting perspective on how SAMR, and tech integration in general, should be rolled out in professional development. It's not about using technology to teach better. It's about teaching better and using technology to amplify that great teaching.

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!

If you know a history teacher looking to build a PLN on Twitter, this list is awesome! I was psyched that I was on it, but also found a whole crew of great educators I didn't even know were out there. Definitely worth a visit.

I read this and immediately thought of ebtl2 where we are driven to think outside of the box. I wonder what our students will say when asked.

"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.

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.

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.

Has anyone seen this new feature of Socrative yet? There are a lot of audio files for History/Social Studies and STEM and many lessons designed for both subjects, which use Socrative to evaluate student learning. What do you think?

Annemarie, There is some great content for STEM classes in this link. I shared the volcano and roach robots with some of the teachers at CMS and will direct them to the entire list. Thanks for sharing this.

A really interesting reflective post about parents' concerns about screen time and our increasing use of screens as a way to encourage learning. What should schools do when curriculum and instruction conflicts with parenting? No easy answer here. Just posing more questions.

Interesting post, Kerry. I don't have any answers, either. And since I'm not a parent, it's hard for me to imagine how I might feel on the parent side of the issue at this time. It's interesting because in our jigsaw group discussion on chapter 6, we talked about a similar issue. Wagner points out how parents of the innovators he showcased in his book limited screen time, but also set an important distinction between screen time where kids are watching TV and playing video games, often independently, and screen time in classrooms where kids are engaged in collaborative learning projects. I certainly agree that there is a difference, but it makes sense that there should be some balance, or some limit, somewhere. In education it always seems that the pendulum swings from one extreme to the other before settling somewhere in the middle. It will be interesting to see how this issue unfolds. I'd also be curious to hear from the perspectives of the parents in our EBTL2 class, since they are also educators involved in the BYOD initiative and growing world of technology.

So, I'm a parent of a 7th grader and a 3rd grader, and obviously I'm also involved as a teacher at RMHS. We have 1:1 iPads in my LLD English classes but they stay at school. I haven't had any push-back from parents so far about assignments or screen time. I did look at this link, and I looked at the forum as well, and I think as a parent, what was a little concerning about the forum comments, was the lack of empathy and understanding from teachers towards parents. As a parent, I also have concerns about screen time, and I see that there are certainly ways that we can limit recreational screen time. We do as much as we can. But, sometimes if my 7th grader has a project, I might not know much more about it than she is able to communicate to me (sometimes this is a lot, and sometimes it is not much). There have only been a few times when this has happened, but I have tried to set some limit about how much time to spend on the project, my daughter has really fought it, because she's been concerned about not doing a good job, etc. Occasionally new technology or apps take longer for her to master than the intended time for the project or assignment, and so something simple or seemingly quick takes much longer than it should. Situations like this can turn parents off to technology if they don't understand the big picture, or if they don't have any confidence that the teacher understands the big picture. Sometimes we don't give kids enough time in class to "play around" with apps or new approaches before turning them loose to do an assignment independently, and that too, can lead to stressful situations at home where both parent and child don't know how to do the assignment. I think the point is that any change is going to make people uncomfortable, and some folks are going to react more strongly than others. The more we can communicate and explain what's happening, and let parents know that the technology and experimentation is a vital part of the learning proce

Explains how social media can facilitate and expand student learning. Robyn, it even has a cook infographic!

Interesting article - a lot of merit to it - I'm more engaged when doing what I choose to do rather than what I have to do..