I'm Heather Mathis. Instructional technology facilitator (#NCITF) for #gcsk12. Lifelong learner. #EdTech enthusiast. Scientist at heart. 21st century educator.
2016 nmc horizon report he EN. 2015 nmc horizon report k12 EN.
Twitter 2015 - web pages. Retweets 2016. Retweets 2015. Tweets 2016. Tweets 2015. Retweets 2016. Retweets 2015. Twitter 2016 - Photos. Twitter 2015 - Photos. Professional Development and Professional Growth. Standards. Standards for Coaches. What Happens When We Let Students Work the Problem – A.J. JULIANI. In the movie, The Martian, there was a quote in the last scene that really hit home, when thinking about my role as a teacher and leader.
It comes from lead character Mark Watney who was stranded on Mars and had to solve what seemed like a countless number of problems in order to even have a remote chance of being rescued: “When I was up there, stranded by myself, did I think I was going to die? Yes. Absolutely, and that’s what you need to know going in because it’s going to happen to you. This is space. It comes back to what matters: Our attitude and our actions. Mark’s opinion of his situation did not matter. So, let me ask you the question: How often do we let students “work the problem” in our schools and classrooms? Amazon Education to Launch New Website for Open Education Resources - Market Brief. Phoenix Amazon Education is working on a new platform that will allow schools to upload, manage, share, and discover open education resources from a home page that in some ways resembles the one shoppers are accustomed to accessing on the massive online retailer’s website.
School administrators learned about the site, to be called Amazon Inspire, during a “Transitioning to OER” session Friday as part of the National Conference on Education of the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, held here. The new platform is in beta testing now, and is scheduled to be released publicly within the next two to three months, according to Andrew Joseph, vice president of strategic relations for Amazon Education. Users of the site will be able to add ratings and reviews, and to receive recommendations based on their previous selections. My Top 3 Google Sheets Add-ons. I’m a fan of spreadsheets.
For this, I do not apologize. Some teachers I’ve spoken to are still big Excel fans, (not that there’s anything wrong with that). They site the time back in 2011 when they tried “the google sheets” and it wasn’t as good as excel. That statement is absolutely true. But “the Google Sheets” has evolved and is better and stronger than ever before, and thanks to Add-ons, you can personalize your experience and provide the tools for all of your spreadsheeting needs. 11 Backchannel & Informal Assessment Tools Compared in One Chart. When A School Becomes Toxic – What Can We Do to Change School Culture?
When you walk into a school you can usually feel the culture right away.
Is this a building where teachers love to teach? Where students thrive? Is there a feeling of family in the air or something else? A building’s culture is often invisible and yet it can be one of the most important components of what makes a school great. In fact, I fell in love with Oregon Middle School because of the feeling of family I encountered in my very first interview. Listening to Innovate – The Principal of Change. A question that was asked on, “How do we help people in our own buildings that are reluctant to move forward?”
My response was to not try to impose what you want to teach them, but listen to what they are doing and work backwards from there. If we can connect our learning to theirs it is a definite win-win, yet when we constantly push only what we know, it might make the other person feel that they are doing something wrong. I tried to articulate this in a short video below. To provide an example of this, here is a short snippet from my book, “The Innovator’s Mindset“, edited for the purpose of this post: “One of the challenges with the large group workshop model is that, no matter how hard we try to differentiate, not everyone will get out of the day what you (or they) might hope.
As Covey would say, if we are to “begin with the end in mind”, the “end” should be that people move forward and grow, not just simply do what they think they should do. How Engineering Class in 9th Grade Can Excite Diverse Learners. Engineering has been getting a lot of attention because of its real-world applications and clear job prospects, but learning to think like an engineer could be useful no matter what students decide to pursue for work.
At Science Leadership Academy, a public magnet school in Philadelphia, all ninth-graders take a one-semester introduction-to-engineering course to help them learn how to tackle big projects. That’s a skill they will need in every high school class going forward at this project-based, inquiry-centered school. SLA teachers see engineering as the perfect vehicle to get students practicing the transferable skills of breaking work down into manageable pieces, working together and learning from failed attempts. By introducing students to the built world and giving some simple ways to think about problems, they’ve also empowered students to design and build improvements for the physical school environment.
Untitled. I was chatting with Mary over at the Dial My Calls site (click to see my review of Dial My Calls) and she had some great suggestions for how teachers can use technology to stay in touch with parents: A lot of emphasis has been given to getting parents involved in their child’s education, but with a teacher’s already full schedule and parents who are already stretched thin, this is not always easy to accomplish.
Luckily, technology has intervened and come up with some very innovative solutions that make it quick and easy for a teacher to stay connected with parents. "Youth develops fine motor skills, seniors practice cognitive exercise, both make enjoyable & enriching connections" A Letter-Writing Project To Connect Students With Senior Citizens From a press release Montreal, Feb. 8, 2016 – As more researchers and doctors recommend the benefits of handwriting for both children and senior citizens, Domtar Corporation (NYSE:UFS) (TSX: UFS) unveiled a new program today called PaperPal.
The effort will connect generations through letter-writing. It will help youths develop fine motor skills, spur seniors to practice a useful cognitive exercise and give both groups a way to develop enjoyable and enriching connections. Domtar tested the program in 2015 with a school and retirement community in Van Nuys, Calif. The Tweeted Times - personal newspaper generated from your Twitter account. Where was this when I taught physics? Great read: 11 class activities with sensors you didn't know your phone had.
Mobile devices can do more than we imagine!
Rebecca and Chrystian Vieyra developed apps for classrooms to tap into their sensors. (Google Hangout screenshot) Smartphones and tablets are powerful devices that people use every day to make their lives easier. They’re even smarter than we give them credit for. Most of them have sensors we never knew they had. #GoogleForms updates that are a total #GameChanger for the #k12 world! #EdTech #gcsk12 #NCITF #GAfE. Boasting templates that come pre-populated with suggested questions based on your use case and the ability to see who has completed your form and who hasn’t, these new features not only make it easier to create forms, but also provide insight into how your forms are completed. 1) Start From Scratch No Longer One of the biggest time saving features in this recent rollout are form templates.
There are 20 different templates to choose from that are categorized by education, personal, and work. 8 Steps To Flipped Teacher Professional Development. How To Help Teachers Create Their Own Professional Development by Terry Heick Traditional teacher professional development depends on external training handed down to teachers after having identified their weaknesses as a professional. If you’re not so great at teacher writing, or if assessment is becoming a bigger focus in your school or district, you fill out a growth plan of some sort, attend your training, get your certificates, and repeat until you’ve got your hours or your school has run out of money to send you to more training.
Oftentimes these “professional growth plans” are scribbled out in 15 minute meetings with your principal, then “revisited” at the end of the year as a kind of autopsy. Flip This House: Tips for Bridging the Tech Gap Between School and Home. I grew up in a household with two system engineers. When I began teaching, my childhood comfort with technology followed me into the classroom; I was always thrilled to introduce new hardware or software to my students. Yet for all my tech advocacy and usage, my sons are interacting with technology in ways I couldn’t have imagined even a few short years ago and—on some occasions—in ways I simply can’t understand.
"It is the answers we reward, while the questions are barely tolerated" - 5 ways better student questioners #k12. The humble question is an indispensable tool: the spade that helps us dig for truth, or the flashlight that illuminates surrounding darkness. Questioning helps us learn, explore the unknown, and adapt to change. That makes it a most precious “app” today, in a world where everything is changing and so much is unknown. And yet, we don’t seem to value questioning as much as we should. For the most part, in our workplaces as well as our classrooms, it is the answers we reward -- while the questions are barely tolerated. Pixar and Khan Academy Release Free Online Course for Aspiring Animators. Up there with being an astronaut, comic book artist, or the President, there’s one job that your average kid would probably love to snag: Working at Pixar. Animation and Pixar enthusiasts of all ages, take note!
Pixar in A Box (or PIAB) is a collaboration between Khan Academy and Pixar Animation Studios that focuses on real-Pixar-world applications of concepts you might usually encounter in the classroom. The latest batch of Pixar in a Box gives Makers a rare peek under the hood so that you can get a whiff of the warm engine that keeps those Pixar pistons pumping. Random Picker. A could comparison and great read for those interested in using Quizizz! I love hosting classroom quiz games. They can be great for formative assessment as can be a great way to help students review before a test. You’ve probably used (or at least heard of) the multiplayer gaming website Kahoot. There’s a lot to like about Kahoot: it’s free, works in web browers on tablets, computers, and smartphones, and you input your questions (or copy a pre-made quiz from their library). How awesome! I'm proud to be a part of #gcsk12 Way to go @CoachBmhms! Great Monday morning read: How has Google affected the way students learn? by @MindShiftKQED #EdTech #Education #K12.
#PaperSlide videos are the perfect K-12 tool for all ages and all subjects! How-to video. Great age-appropriate lessons for #digitalliteracy and #digitalcitizenship via Common Sense Media! Get Trained. What a great real-life connection: the #SuperBowl of #BookTalks. Click HERE to watch the Podcast It’s finally here…the Super Bowl of Book Talks! You Matter: Before You Help Students, You Must Help Yourself. Stress caused me to lose half my hair and gain weight. Stress put Angela in the hospital three times in a year. As much as we love caring for children, we’ve learned very hard lessons that mattering starts with loving yourself enough to take care of yourself.
100 Fun Activities to Celebrate 100th Day of School - SimplyCircle. Very soon your school will be celebrating the 100th day of school. There are many ways to mark this event, practice math and have fun with the number 100. Best 100th Day of School Resources for PTA Leaders. Soon, your school will be celebrating 100th Day of School. Help your school celebrate the 100 days of school milestone with literally hundreds of best-of-the-best resources and ideas. Remind. 10 Things Google Classroom Makes Easier. Google Classroom makes sharing Google Docs, Presentations, and Spreadsheets easier. While it is not a learning management system, it is a handy tool for any teacher using GAFE (Google Apps for Education.) In today’s episode Alice Keeler, author of 50 Things You Can Do with Google Classroom updates us on the newest features.
What Teachers That Use Technology Believe #edtech #gcsk12 #gcspinnacle #ncitf - "6 #EdTech Tools to Try in 2016" from Cult of Pedagogy. Our teachers are leaders and lifelong learners - that's why they're planning their own EdCamp. "We love Chromebooks!" - Revolutionizing the way students learn. Proud to be a part of #gcsk12.
Digital restroom passes! Hey friends! It's Amber from PeppyZestyTeacherista! First let me go ahead and ask, did the picture of the toilets gross you out or cause you to double take at the blog post? Some Very Good iPad Apps Activities and Lesson Ideas to Use in Class with Your Students. Mystery Science: Lessons for elementary teachers. If you didn't see this already, the best Apple/Google apps of 2015. I love periodic table battleship Such a creative twist on the classic game for students! #gamebasedlearning.
Is it Shrek or Mr.Hovis? It's amazing what Mr. Hovis will do to get our students to read! #gcsk12. Enjoying this: StoryBoard That with writing prompts and suggested activities featured daily for student creation! The treasure trove.....! #gcschats. Have Technology - Will Travel. The Ed Tech Roundup - Home. EDpuzzle. Could Twitter improve your child's classroom?
#gcschats is tonight! Join me and @tthomassen to talk favorite edu. resources! #gcsk12. Home - Augmenting Your Science Curriculum - Research Guides at UNC Charlotte. Excited for session 2 at UNCC #STEM conference: best of the best activities for EACH 5th grade essential standard! The 13 best Google Chrome hacks. THIS WEEK AT SHERWOOD: Beginning... - Sherwood Elementary School.