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The tech solutions available to teachers now go far beyond the overhead projector. Below, a look at some tools in this burgeoning category. BetterLesson The Boston-based startup BetterLesson, founded in 2008, is a social media platform that educators can use to organize and share their curricula. Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded BetterLesson $3.5 million. “Considering the startup allows teachers to browse a serious repository of documents, presentations, lessons and even complete units and courses, all through a simple search interface, and upload their own lessons onto a dashboard, you can see why teachers will love this kind of resource,” TechCrunch wrote in 2011. “Add the ability to share curricula directly with international educators and receive feedback, and you’ve got yourself a goddamn deal, as Dave Chappelle would say.” . ClassDojo Launched in August 2011, ClassDojo helps teachers with what many call their hardest task: classroom management. The platform, which teachers can use on a smartphone, laptop or tablet, allows them to give students points (or take them away) “in real-time, with just one click,” as the website has it. Students are notified (“Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!”), and teachers can use the platform to generate analytics and reports to share with parents and administrators. . PowerSchool PowerSchool allows teachers to track attendance, grades, and a lot more for students and parents to view at home. According to Pearson, which sells the system, PowerSchool supports 10 million students in over 65 countries. . SMART Board An “interactive whiteboard,” SMART Board allows teachers to write class notes digitally, so they can be saved for students to access later. (Feel like building your own whiteboard? At TED in 2008, Johnny Lee showed how you can hack a Wii Remote to build a simple interactive whiteboard.) . Remind101 Started by a team of two brothers, Remind101 enables students and parents to sign up to receive teachers’ text-message reminders about assignments. It’s private—these are mass texts, and teachers can’t see students’ phone numbers. It’s also one-way, meaning that teachers can send out texts, but students can’t respond to them. . Educreations Using Educreations, teachers can produce video lessons using a “recordable interactive whiteboard” via an iPad app or the website. There’s a public directory of lessons, available for browsing by students or other teachers (or you).

s it really OK to give ipads to four and five year olds? When you’ve got the American Academy of Pediatrics making fairly strict recommendations about screen time for children under two, it makes sense to consider the question for young children as well.

It is almost impossible to exist without at least a computer, if not also a smartphone, laptop and tablet. There comes a time when it is foolish to pretend that the world has not changed

Technology is a language that some of them speak quite fluently.  If we really want to reach them and meet their needs, we may need to start speaking their language, and that means using technology in their classrooms.

teaching with technology involves four major components: the course content, the instructor, the students and the technology tools (See Figure 17.1.). We need to attend to each component in order to make technology integration as successful as possible.   Each of these components is discussed in more detail below. Scroll down or navigate to a particular section: course content the instructor the students technology tools

time-saving tips and clever ideas needed to get inspired, build confidence and create an energetic learning environment for your students.

Learn more about AD/HD

talking to the student, participating in the meeting where his or her IEP or Section 504 plan is developed, or talking with the student’s parents.

State expectations clearly and positive

Login Welcome, {{name}} Logout Rankings &amp; Advice Education Health Money Travel Cars Law Firms News U.S. News Home education Facebook Twitter Education Rankings &amp; Advice Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools National Rankings State Rankings High School Notes Blog (function ($) { "use strict"; $(function () { var $metaCurrentState = $('meta[name=current_state_abbreviation]'), $headerSearch = $('#headerSearch-highSchools'), $headerState = $('select[name=bhs-school-state]', $headerSearch), $headerStates = $('option', $headerStates), currentStateAbbreviation = ''; if ($metaCurrentState.length > 0) { currentStateAbbreviation = $metaCurrentState.attr('content'); $headerStates.each(function () { var $state = $(this), text = $state.text(), value = $state.val(); if (text === currentStateAbbreviation) { $headerState.val(value); } }); } }); }(jQuery)); in AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC<

can't just hand out iPads just for professional development or training for the teachers

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The teacher's primary role is to help students understand particular subject matter. Everything else is secondary. Therefore, the focus of any computer-related professional development should not be on the technology itself, but on how computers can improve performance in these core areas of the teacher's "job."

This limited use may have multiple causes: Teachers may be overwhelmed by demands of testing; they may not see the value of instructional technologies in their particular content area; they may work in environments where principals do not understand or encourage technology use; and the types of software most helpful in instruction are not always the types of applications students know how—or want—to use.

job-related, focused on the core competencies of the classroom, not technology just enough, emphasizing increased comfort, not proficiency, with computers and management of limited technology resources just in time, meaning teacher are provided with skills as and when needed just in case teachers need to plan for contingencies accompanied by a "just try it" attitude, wherein instructors apply both pressure and support to compel teachers to use what they've learned.

73% of AP and NWP teachers say that they and/or their students use their mobile phones in the classroom or to complete assignments 45% report they or their students use e-readers and 43% use tablet computers in the classroom or to complete assignments

76% of AP and NWP teachers “strongly agree that “search engines have conditioned students to expect to be able to find information quickly and easily” 83% agree that “the amount of information available online today is overwhelming for most students” 71% agree that “today’s digital technologies discourage students from finding and using a wide range of sources for their research” 60% agree with the notion that “today’s digital technologies make it harder for students to find and use credible sources of information”

70% of teachers working in the highest income areas say their school does a “good job” providing teachers the resources and support they need to incorporate digital tools in the classroom, compared with 50% of teachers working in the lowest income areas 73% of teachers of high income students receive formal training in this area, compared with 60% of teachers of low income students 56% of teachers of students from higher income households say they or their students use tablet computers in the learning process, compared with 37% of teachers of the lowest income students 55% of teachers of higher income students say they or their students use e-readers in the classroom, compared with 41%&nbsp; teaching in low income areas 52% of teachers of upper and upper-middle income students say their students use cell phones to look up information in class, compared with 35% of teachers of the lowest income students 39% of AP and NWP teachers of low income students say their school is “behind the curve” when it comes to effectively using digital tools in the learning process; just 15% of teachers of higher income students rate their schools poorly in this area 56% of teachers of the lowest income students say that a lack of resources among students to access digital technologies is a “major challenge” to incorporating more digital tools into their teaching; 21% of teachers of the highest income students report that problem 49% of teachers of students living in low income households say their school’s use of internet filters has a major impact on their teaching, compared with 24% of those who teach better off students who say that 33% of teachers of lower income students say their school’s rules about classroom cell phone use by students have a major impact on their teaching, compared with 15% of those who teach students from the highest income households

1. Best for Young Readersscholastic.com/stacks

2. Best for Lesson Plansthinkfinity.org

3. Best for Finding Booksbookwizard.scholastic.com

Feelings Game 4 graduated lessons for learning about emotions. Faceland Build skills in facial recognition of emotion