Group items tagged

"My Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. I say "My" in the loosest sense of ownership really, as with all of the presentations they belong to us all. I just kickstart them and point them off in the right direction."

Grading Practices: Liabilities of the Points System

Very nice article that is short and to the point regarding successful integration of technology into the classroom. 

This article supports the point of students being provided opportunities to voice their opinions regarding their education. 

"Those of us who are involved in Professional Development have known for a while now. We don't have the same crowd sitting in the audience anymore. The crowd is not "WoWed" by fancy PowerPoints with clipart from the Microsoft Gallery. A sigh goes through the ranks when animation (maybe even with sound) pop one bullet point after another onto the screen."

Twitter Resources for Teachers You've heard the buzz on the Twitter phenomenon. Everybody seems to be hooked by this micro blogging service. It's been a catalyst for marketing in multinational companies, personal branding for entrepreneurs, and a simple advertising tool for the small businesses. Professionals from the education sphere seem to be catching up to the trends of technolgoy. Whether you're innovating teaching strategies for the university or looking for education jobs online, Twitter is one versatile venue where both teachers and students converse meaningfully. Don't take our word for it, here are some expert guides and tips on how to use this magnificent social networking site to your learning advantage. Articles on Twitter In Education 1. Teaching Twitter to the Teachers - To use twitter effectively, you need a reason to start with. 2. Twitter Tweets for Higher Education - Doing a little online searching (emphasis on the little), the author of this blog has found the following items related to Twitter and education. 3. 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education - Blog By Carol - Based on a list by Chris Brogan - 50 ideas for using Twitter in Business. 4. Using Twitter as an Education Tool - Are you using Twitter yet? If not, you may want to read how other educators are using Twitter as an education tool. 5. Twitter Transforms Teaching - Twitter's now tapped as a teaching and learning tool with opportunities to motivate students and advance achievement. 6. Teaching with Twitter - Steve Wheeler's 10 top uses of Twitter for education. 7. Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education - 18 people Lon S. Cohen (writer and social media strategist. He is @obilon on Twitter) following for a real time education. 8. Educational Tool: Twitter - 'Twitter in the Classroom' techniques by Christine Morris. 9. Twenty-Five Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom - Excellent presentation by Creative Commons 10. N

It is a known fact that if you want to commit something to memory, continuous revision is the key. You read something every time you are at your desk and within days it becomes second nature. To be able to revise quickly and often, it helps if the information is terse and to the point highlighting only the important aspects. Something like an application cheat sheet or a poster that you can print and pin to a board or keep on your desk. Here are some application cheat sheets for commonly used software that will hopefully make you more productive.

"Ever wonder what it would be like if we let our students pick the tools we use in class? This collection of web 2.0 tools is just that- a list of tools and ideas for what students see as being useful for their learning in and out of school. To begin the project, 8th grade students were engaged in a conversation about what school would look like if all of the rules we currently had were disbanded. They were no longer bound by walls, schedules, age restrictions or standardized tests. No technology was outlawed. It was a bit of a hurdle for them...after eight years of the current school arrangement, it was difficult for them to imagine anything else. With a little encouragement and a push they rose to the occasion, and here are the tools they think we ought to consider using. As this is a dynamic site, there may be some entries in need of editing. We will get to them! We left the duplicates in for emphasis as well as different points of view. Enjoy!"

This is for everyone who has a blog or wants to have one… in other words, this is for most of the literate universe. I'm guessing that you blog because you want to share things with the world or you want to, at least, participate in the conversation with others who have common interests. So, if you're serious about keeping your blog going, you'll want to have readers. But, sadly, as business blogging pro Joel Spolsky points out in this excellent article from INC Magazine, most of us simply don't "get it" when it comes to blogging.

We mock the school system because we love the idea of quality, free, public education. We want to help point out the problems and hypocrisies in an effort to help promote a solution. We also want to provide comic relief for the millions of teachers, students, administrators, parents, and tax payers who have found themselves locked in a system which has never fully reached it's potential

"Although search engines provide a great starting point when you're searching for someone online, with all of the new social sites that have popped up over the past few years, they're often just not enough. In our recent State of Blog Search 2009 post we discussed the various reasons you may choose to use any or all of the following blog search tools: Technorati, Google Blog Search, Ice Rocket, Ask.com Blogsearch, and FriendFeed. While these blog search engines are great to fill specific needs, they're also another great place to look for your footprints on the Web. "

"What's Sketchcasting? Step 1 Record a sketch with or without voice. Explain something, have fun, or create art. Step 2 Then embed the sketch player in your blog or point people to your sketch channel. "

"Students are so emerged with technology, sometimes they act as the educators, showing their teachers how to do certain things and use certain tools. This video asks the simple question of if we are paying attention to the way our students learn. Besides being a visual, spatial or audio learner, most students fall under the category of "digital learners." With fascinating facts like the 10,000 hours college graduates have spent playing video games and the 70% of our nation's 4-6 year olds that have used a computer; it is no wonder why students are being classified as digital learners. The video also asks if we as teachers are reaching our students. Are we engaging them? The technologies that students are using so much in their everyday lives should be infused into the classrooms so that we do reach our students and so that we do engage them. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual tours. These are just a few of the dozens of items presented in the video that offer a new way to use technology with our students. It brings up a great point that since our students already know how to use these technologies, we should be using them to teach. Even recent graduates who are no longer in school encourage the idea of using technology to engage students, not enrage them. Podcasts are another great option to teaching. With thousands available in almost any subject, you can teach students without having to stand up and lecture them. This video offers great advice and inspiration for engaging digital learners today."

"Kevin Honeycutt watched as a group of students at the Turning Point Learning Center, a K-8 charter school in Emporia, KS, took turns with an iPad, rocking out on a virtual guitar as they rehearsed for an upcoming spring concert."

A video circulating online shows a Tuesday classroom incident involving a Manhattan High science teacher and his student. Dean Stramel and a female student are seen arguing in the three-minute video, which appears to have been shot by a student using a cellphone camera. At one point the student being lectured by Stramel complains about being spat on in the midst of the exchange. Stramel is heard telling the student, "I'm spitting on you … because I'm pissed." The student gets up and flees the room while other students laugh. That incident is followed by Stramel chastising the rest of the students for their poor academic performance.

Great for school report cards - just point and click

This is another great thought and debate provoking article. It brings up the point of how cursive handwriting is not part of Common Core standards and may have little impact on future jobs.

Very interesting infographic on social learning. I really like how they make the point of the learner being center of the learning taking place.

Flake Pad is a great little site to help students understand symmetry. Any time students click a space on the grid, the shape is added to multiple points on the grid.