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This webpage offers many different links about various aspects of college life, in and out of the classroom.

This webpage offers many different links about various aspects of college life, in and out of the classroom.

Makes math seem relevant to students.

Wow, this is great! I've never seen a website like this! I can absolutely see how I would refer to this site when my students pose that ever-popular question, "When am I ever gonna use this?" I think this sight could be used by teacher, students, and parents to help deepen the understanding and application of math concepts! I wish I had a similar site to share with you, but, like I said, this is the first I've seen of this type! Thanks for sharing!

Great site for both teachers and students to show how math relates to everyday life! Thanks for sharing this is something I can see myself using in the future.

This teacher describes how she transformed her classroom into a 21st century learning environment for her students.

I found this post very interesting. It is easy to see how PBL may work in a science or math classroom, but I have always wondered how it would look for English. It seems like this teacher has truly grasped PBL, and her students are enjoying the learning process. I think this resource could be utilized by any teacher who instructs about English content, but depending on the age of the learners, the students may not reach full autonomy as those in this article did. I particularly enjoyed one quote from the teacher, "Finally technology is embedded into the structure of all we do... It's never an accessory tacked on at the end." As we have learned about in other EdTech courses, technology needs to truly transform the learning experience. I believe the teacher is doing that in this classroom.

This Blog is one that I have bookmarked and will coming back to. This teacher's description of her class is how I want to work to make my class to look like. She had her premise but she had been able to create a class based on inquiry, openness and trust. This empowers students to create a social media campaign, create their own curriculum, and at the same time become more advanced in the content. Ms. Barseghian, I'm gushing, but your class sounds inspirational and worth the gushing.

This website a list of Web 2.0 tools you can use with your students when you want them to be collaborating, communicating, creating, critical thinking, and processing information. Many of the tools come with tutorials and explanations of how teachers have incorporated the tool into their classrooms.

Wow, love the extensive lists and all of the ideas they have here. It helps to keep them all together on this site so I can remember where to look when I want to variety of ideas for something. Whenever I feel like I want to change up a lesson or add something "spicier" to it, I often turn to something-tech related, so now I can turn here. Thanks! I think this could be helpful for any teachers looking to add a little spice to their lessons. I always "pin" stuff like that, too, to keep all of my ideas collected together.

I love the part of this article that encourages educators to think of a lesson that needs some life and then to look at web 2.0 tools! Also there is a link that brings you to effective communication tools for web 2.0 that I found helpful. Definitely a great teacher tool so that they have a place to go to for ideas for sprucing up a lesson. Teachers are really starting to come around to ideas like this, and I see more integration in lessons everyday. Definitely check out the twitter handle!

Several articles on how to use/incorporate google and features of google

Thanks for sharing. I do like the voice-to-text feature in Google Docs. I do fear this is promoting laziness, but it does make life easier! My students figured out this feature before I even showed it to them. I think that this feature is great for teachers too! For example, you can use an extension called Doctopus which will allow you to verbally give feedback to your students through Google Docs. For example, if I was reading a student's paper, this extension would record my voice as I am giving my student feedback. I think this would make life much easier on a student. Who knows, maybe there won't even be keyboards in the future. Maybe we will just talk into our computers? What a crazy thought!

Great resource! I was especially interested in the one about how to manage your Google Drive apps because I want to use more of them but don't want to get overwhelmed. There are a number of good ones for doing research, for instance. They can help both me, the teacher, teach the students how to research and organize information effectively, as well as help them, the students, actually go through the process. They really struggle with research, so anything helps. Thanks!

This article gives great advice for non-tech fluent adults for dealing with students and Social Media.

Social Media

I really agree some of the things they say in the article. No difference between real life and what they post. I think many people forget about the impact of their actions on social media. Digital Footprint... it can be a big deal. I don't think students are fully aware of how their actions can impact them.

Smithsonian website with resources and information about oceans, science, etc; features an "Educator's Corner" with lesson plans and activities.

Erin this looks like a great site for students who want to learn about the ocean. When I visited it I noticed just how easy the site was to navigate. Super simple for people who might now be to tech savvy. Everything was laid out in an easy to read manner. The articles looked fun and full of information. If I ever became a teacher and we were learning about the ocean this would be a huge help, because the Smithsonian is one of the most prestigious organizations in the world. The Smithsonian has many different interactive website that deal with all different parts of our planet, and the ocean is just on small sliver of their knowledge.

I really liked this website, and I remember liking the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, itself. The site is very user-friendly for both teachers and students.

The term 21st century skills refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed-by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others-to be critically important to success in today's world, particularly in collegiate programs and contemporary careers and workplaces. Generally speaking, 21st century skills can be applied in all … This website inspired me to plan lessons that encourage creativity, curiosity, imagination, personal expression, and innovation. I want my students to be able to process and use information and have adaptable skills in many different areas!!

Educational Reform. Defining 21st century skills. Debate on worth of skills.

Steps to integrate technology in the classroom, apps, websites, lessons. IWB, computer, laptop cart, mobile devices.

This is a great resource! I actually just found this website today myself. I will have to follow them on Twitter. I like this article because it puts the ideas into a bulleted list. This way you can see the main points they want to make. I have found that I really like that about articles on Edutopia. What a great, teacher centered, article!

Alexis, I think this is a great resource for integrating technology in the classroom. I really like that it includes specific ideas and examples. While this resource is primarily aimed at teachers, the examples are definitely aimed at developing student activities. As a teacher, this is a great starting point for beginning technology integration. Edutopia seems to be a great resource overall, and I enjoyed looking through some of their other articles as well!

article discussing different ways in which twitter can be used in the classroom

Sarah, Thank you for sharing this article. Twitter exploded last year in my district, especially at the high school, as a form of communication for everyone. The middle school, where I am primilary at, is slowly catching on. However, I LOVE Twitter as a professional resource. I think it is like a social bookmarker. I can share the websites, and then go back when I have time to explore them more. I agree this can be used in my library to be an effective communication tool for both students and staff. I believe this resource can be used for both students and staff, but they have different purposes. As a professional, using hashtags can be very benefical to find information. It can also be a great way to network, using the Twitter Chats that go on all around the United States and the world. Students can use this to communicate. For example, the students wanted to have a blue out in honor of a student who has cancer at the football game last night. They asked the opposing team to join them in wearing blue to honor a young man who is fighting for his life. They did, and they donated an additional $425 because they found that information on Twitter! I am not aware of other resources that do that same thing. I believe Twitter is unique with their limit of 140 characters and the strong hashtag movement they begun all throughout the internet world.

Emma, are you in Clinton? I heard about the "blue out"! I like to use Twitter for mainly professional use, but that varies from anywhere between retweeting professional articles to reminding the study body to buy their yearbooks. I try to throw in some personal stuff every now and again just to show that their teacher is an actual human, too. :)

This whole blog is a great resource for information literacy and other important 21st century skills

I've never heard of this blog before and I greatly enjoyed this post! I agree with the statement that people have to continuously learn and be educated throughout their life in order to be successful.

interesting article about "problem-based learning" and why it is important for kids to struggle when learning

Sarah I think this article is well written, and a lot of parents need to read this, long with teachers. I am not sure when our society switched over to make everyone a winner. Making everyone a winner is not reality, and as a teacher that is so frustrating. I think about the scientiests who have made dramatic breakthroughs in their careers, and I would love to know how many times they failed? I am sure it was more times than they have found success, but that makes the success that much better! I do agree that this article is going to be benefical for future classrooms. I take it into this: Students might not find the "right book" on the very first try, and that is ok. If they can't read it because it is too challaning, that is ok. They can try again. I think this is an article that both teachers and students need to read because teachers need to let students fail more and students need to know that it is OK to fail! Life is full of failures...but the failure does not define you, how you handle the failure does! As far as the last question, am I aware of any other resources similar, this question does not really apply. The article focuses on the concept of failure and challanging projects and that is ok so that students know how to respond the next time.

great point about "When did everyone become winners?" Students need to struggle sometimes in order to fully understand the assignment, the concept, etc. It drives me crazy when a kid doesn't get something so they just want me to spoonfeed it to them.

This article talks about how develop good inquiries through good questioning and organization. I would use this article to remind me of good questioning for students.

Nicole, I really enjoyed watching this video as well. When I first started watching the video, there was an opening sentence that just drew my attention right away into the video. The teacher said, "I realized how much more they learn, then when I see that they take action and their applying the skills they learn in here, I feel like I have done my job as a teacher." When I start to begin my teacher's journey, I hope to feel that overwhelming joy of teaching my students, not just viable information, but also how it can be applied to the real world settings. I also was excited to hear that all the coordinator said that group based learning is all about curiosity. Which I believe is what we as future or current teachers try to accomplish everyday that we are in the classroom. I agree that the resource can be used efficiently in my own future classroom because I hope to one day teach my students how they want to be taught material, as well as how to share that material with others around them. I believe that the resource is a use for both teachers and students. The reason why is because teachers can learn from their students developing ways, as well as how the student can teach their teacher how they can best develop and comprehend the material. I am currently not aware of any other similar resources that could be considered at this time, but I am confident that as our class continues on, there will be more resources.

"Inquiry is a fancy term for curiosity". I could not agree more. This is such a motivational video to help us as educators encourage our students to dive further in exploring ideas. Curiosity leads to the ability to create strong, driving questions. I look forward to allowing my students to take charge of their learning by encouraging them to bring up real life questions that will allow them to dive into their inquiry and research. As teachers, we must learn to take a step back and allow the students to facilitate their own learning with strong question asking!

good ideas for high-interest, engaging lesson activities

These strategies are great suggestions. I especially like the idea of four corners. I feel like I could use it when I have students do current technology articles. I also like tea party, that would be a great way to introduce a careers research assignment, giving each student a basic definition of a career in the field and having the "tea party" before they choose their topic. I feel that this is geared towards teachers looking to improve their classroom and shift more toward a learner-centered room. As the blog states, it is also a great resource for teachers who have especially active students.

I was pleasantly surprised by this article! When I first clicked on it I expected it to be elementary based like so many engagement articles are. But then I realized it was for secondary so good for me! The main thing I pulled out of this article was the idea for crowd sourcing. It seems like a simple concept but I had never thought of it before. I think this is a great resource for teachers and I plan on using the crowd sourcing technique on Tuesday!

This is a great resource that gives you lesson plans and activities in a variety of different subjects and grade levels. You can even search by standards, grade, and subject!

Lesson plans and activities for a wide range of subject geared towards real-life examples. Difficult to sort through and search for material relevant to the math standards needed for my courses.

This website is a good tool for teachers to map student's ideas within the classroom. Teachers can model the use of this website and have their students use it as well.

Mindmeister is a great resource for students! Graphic organizers are a powerful tool to help organize thinking. Mindmeister's ability to bring collaboration into the mix just makes it better, as well as being able to present. Works on multiple types of devices too, so good for everyone!

I really like this software! When I think of Social Bookmarking I want to use it to help me find different tools that will benefit me in my classroom. I can think of a time where I am going to want a nice mind mapping software that you can collaborate with, and I know I will be able to come and look at this resource. I agree that this software could be used very effectively, especially because it does have the collaboration tool. I believe this tool could be used both for the teacher and also the student. I could see how easily I could use this website in my life, both when trying to explain things and also in group work. I am aware of different concept maps you can create online, but I believe this one looks user friendly and I would like to explore it even more!

This is a great article about integrating social media into the classroom. It offers a short quiz at the beginning of the article.

This whole website in general is really good. What I decided to focus on specifically was this article about good practices for social media in the classroom. If you have the time I would also check out the comments. There are educators that posted their own uses for social media in the classroom that were not mentioned in the article. This is a good read!

I think this is an awesome resource to give teachers ideas of how to integrate social media in the classroom more effectively. Edutopia always has lots of great, reliable information and resources. One of the things that I think is the most effective is how this article has links to other sites where specific real life teachers have used social media in the classroom effectively.

This article would be beneficial to share with teachers so that they know the benefits of teaching students to code. Coding in the classroom has long range benefits that could lead to students having many options in their future careers. Additionally sharing this article with students would show them that while coding is fun; they are also working on developing skills that can help them in the present and future.

I really like this resource. I will definitely be looking at this as I get ready to write my final paper. This is different from all of the other articles that I have seen because it is not directly related to coding with students. I could see how this could be beneficial for a young professionals group all the way up to a senior citizen center.

It's interesting how all of these things connect with coding. As a computer science major I can see how all of these can be impacted by coding, yet I never thought of them. After reading this article I definitely can look back and see this occurring through out the past two years!

This blog entry has great suggestions for ways to have students do STEM in language arts. I plan to use some of these activities as options for my 6th graders independent reading projects. My favorite STEM idea provided was designing a tiny house for any character or author.

Case study concerning the gamification of a science class