Group items tagged

"Each morning as we start our day together, I draw attention to things that my students may have missed or mentions from our Twitter feed. This short time together each morning discussing our Twitter feed has resulted in rich discussions that prompt thinking, cause us to wonder and lead us to seek out further information. There are many opportunities during the school day to incorporate the use of twitter. A good place to start is to read the tweets from the other classes you follow, ask questions or provide comments as a whole class. The following examples will give you some ideas on how to involve Twitter in literacy, math and science. All of the Twitter activities explained can be done as a whole group, small group or by individual students. "

"Here is a wonderful step by step guide on how teachers can use Google Drive iPad app to create, distribute, submit, grade and return assignments. The guide starts with setting up a Gmail for students and moves on to how students can create and share a folder with their teacher.It also provides examples on how teachers can create a class folder with a variety of subfolders. the next part covers how teachers can create and submit assignments using apps like iWork which allows students to open Google Drive and upload their assignments. Next is a section on how teachers can collect, grade and return students assignments."

"The school has an unconventional take on the iPad's purpose. The devices are not really valued as portable screens or mobile gaming devices. Teachers I talked to seemed uninterested, almost dismissive, of animations and gamelike apps. Instead, the tablets were intended to be used as video cameras, audio recorders, and multimedia notebooks of individual students' creations. The teachers cared most about how the devices could capture moments that told stories about their students' experiences in school. Instead of focusing on what was coming out of the iPad, they were focused on what was going into it."

"Today, I'm going to tell you a fairy tale: Once upon a time, my mother in law (a third grade teacher) was in her classroom at school when her principal walked in and gave her an iPad for her class to use. Well, technically it was supposed to be for the entire third grade to share, but that's almost beside the point. After some initial excitement, she discussed how the entire third grade was supposed to share a single iPad with her fellow third grade teachers, and the iPad was promptly banished into a drawer, never to see the light of day again. The end."

"With the rise of new trends such as a flipped classroom and whole brain teaching, there is an emphasis on getting students more actively involved in learning in the classroom. And whether or not you choose to fully embrace either of these methods, we can all agree that we want students participating as much as possible. When students are actively participating, they are learning. In math classes we typically involve students in the problem-solving side, but we don't often expect them to provide explanations."

"Back to school. Three words teachers either despise or are very excited for. If you're using an iPad for teaching for the first time, going back to school can feel nervewracking and overwhelming. While the learning curve for teaching with iPads is not necessarily a steep one, it is important to be(come) confident in what you are doing with your device in front of your class."

"A great management tip for school or class sets of iPads, tablets, and iPods is to number each device. Setting the lock screen wallpaper to an image with each device's number will make it easy to identify devices. Just press the home or power button and the lock screen instantly lights up and displays the number. "

"It never ceases to impress me how great teachers consistently find new and innovative educational tools to put in their class toolkit. They do it in a multitude of ways - through sound preparation and in-depth knowledge of the subjects they teach; fresh activities and exercises; engaging resources; and creativity - all to inspire a love of learning and encourage students to think and dream big."

"Since experimenting with "20% Time" in my class a few years ago, I've been fascinated by the research and history of this practice in education and the business world. This has led me down a long road to finally writing a book (to be published by Routledge) on inquiry-driven education and 20% time."

"In a way, the current education system is already set up like a game-just not a very well designed one. Students earn points (grades), gain levels (grades), and in a way, have leaderboards. There are class valedictorians and students are essentially ranked based on their grades when colleges are deciding who to accept. Currently, the typical grading system in schools has students starting off with a 100 average, which slowly (or quickly, depending on the student's performance) gets lower and lower as the student receives anything less than a 100 on any assignments, tests, etc."

"The kindergarten student, a shy, Mandarin-speaking five-year-old immigrant in the tiny community of Sangudo, Alta., had barely spoken a word during the first three months of class. So her teacher was surprised one day last year when the girl struck up a conversation. The subject of their animated discussion? An image on the screen of an iPad. "

"I am revisiting this topic of enhancing students creativity using iPad apps for the second time this year. Almost 10 months ago I featured here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning a selection of some great apps that can be used in class to boost students creative thinking; and today and after having reviewed hundred of new educational apps since that post, I decided to compile an updated version of that list and include some newly featured apps in the category of creativity. Of course by creativity I mean giving students the chance to take their learning to the next step, one in which they are active producers and participators in knowledge building. Creativity is all about creation and iPad is an ideal device to support this creative thinking. Check out the apps I have handpicked for you today and share with us if you have other suggestions :"

"Educational author and former teacher, Dr. Michael Schmoker shares in his book, Results Now, a study that found of 1,500 classrooms visited, 85 percent of them had engaged less than 50 percent of the students. In other words, only 15 percent of the classrooms had more than half of the class at least paying attention to the lesson. So, how do they know if a student is engaged? What do "engaged" students look like? In my many observations, here's some evidence to look for:"

"As the school doors swing open to welcome the start of another year, both teachers and students will have goals: to inspire a class, to learn new things, to get good grades. What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be. "