DEIT – Word of Mouse Blog. Patrickfogarty.net. Internet Catalogue. A class blog… quick, easy and effective. | Ingvi Hrannar. Earlier this year I started a class blog with my students. Before that I used to create a monthly newsletter for the class and sent a .pdf version of it to the parents via e-mail. We included what we did in the past month, what we were about to do in the following month and posted picures in the center. This was fun, the parent but took a pretty long time (avg. around 3 hours) at the end of each month… time that I usually didn’t have so I did it late at night at home. Here’s an example of one of our newsletters: When we started 3rd grade (I looped with my students from 1-3rd grade) I decided to make a class blog. I blogged every day, sometimes during class, and we stayed connected to parents every day and informed them as the day went on.
What happened when we started a class blog was that student engagement went up, they knew I was taking a picture that might go on the blog, they thought about their everyday behaviour and wanted to make the blog that day. Happy blogging. Like this: 9 YouTube Tips and Tricks for Teachers. Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates and/or follow me on Twitter. Info on how to contact me is on the About page. Thanks for visiting! YouTube is still the best place to find videos to use in the classroom, despite being blocked in many schools. Remove the clutter: Often, the biggest problem with YouTube isn’t the video content, but some of the inappropriate comments that can occur in the space below the video. 1. 2. 3. 4.
(Update – sadly XL is no more. Other YouTube Tricks 5. If you now use this link as a hyperlink in your IWB software or PowerPoint, the video will start playing at the point that you chose. 6. 7. Don’t forget that you can choose the video quality of the video, where available. 8. If available, you can turn on subtitles by clicking on the CC button. Click on the CC button and then choose “settings” to change the size, font and colour of the captions. 9. Many videos now also have an interactive transcript. Like this: Using Voice Comments with Google Docs for End of the Year Projects by @CTuckerEnglish. I had a “just in time” professional development moment thanks to Jennifer Roberts and her video titled “Docs Voice Comments.” I wanted to share it with other educators as I know many of us are planning end of the year projects, assignments, and written pieces. These culminating assignments are incredibly time consuming to grade. I also wonder how many of my students carefully read the comments I make on these pieces since they get them back just as the school year ends and summer break begins.
Lastly, these end of the year projects are finished products, so covering them with comments or editing directly on them may not be the most effective way to provide feedback. My students are currently working on a Digital Portfolio Project to share the work they have created in our class. I’ve decided to use the voice comments app instead of typing out all of my comments. Follow the steps below to enable the Voice Comments app.
Search for “Voice Comments” and connect app to your Drive account. The Ross Boss Teacher. Luria Learning Blog. ‘SMILE’ Your Way Through Every Day | Inspiring EdChat. Every Stock Photo - A Search Engine for Free Images. @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER. Teacher blogs. Classroom chronicles | Primary school educator. Bianca Hewes | D.I.Y. teaching and learning. Hack Education. The Art of Teaching Science. Assistive Technology. What It's Like on the Inside. Will. Blogging through the Fourth Dimension. Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Primary Tech. Ollie Bray. Wright'sRoom | Pondering education, technology, and making a difference.
The Frog Blog. The Nerdy Teacher. Upside Down Education. Learning Is Messy – Blog | :Roll up your sleeves and get messy. “Reading” Sebastien Wiertz Close reading is one of the “strategies du jour”. From the Common Core State Standards in ELA: 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. In addition from the Harvard Writing Center: The second step is interpreting your observations. What we’re basically talking about here is inductive reasoning: moving from the observation of particular facts and details to a conclusion, or interpretation, based on those observations.
In pretty much all trainings and presentations I deliver about STEM learning, I stress how STEM is language intense. This is a powerful learning opportunity missed. Trips like these are usually exciting for students and even lead them to wonder and wanting to learn more. The same is true for the hands-on activities- the doing and making experiences the students have. Learning is messy! Regurgitated Alpha Bits. FUNSHINE. Pedagogy vs. Andragogy. Over this last year I have been fortunate to have been sent to many education conferences on behalf of SmartBrief in pursuit of content and guest bloggers for SmartBlog on Education.
It is a dream job for a retired educator and an education blogger. The intent is to always keep the educator’s voice on SmartBlog authentic and relevant. In that capacity, I have attended and conducted a multitude of workshops on various education topics. Since I am no longer in the classroom, and have no need to apply what I learn about current teaching methods in a classroom setting, I often attend these workshops as an observer, or even a critical observer in some cases. In conference after conference, and workshop after workshop I have observed successes and failures in the methods employed by presenters to get their material across to their audiences. Much can be learned as an educator by watching what works with a bunch of teacher/learners. Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning as:
ScienceFix - Science Fix. Mr. Needleman.com: Integrating technology in the elementary curriculum. The Principal of Change. Do Your Tasks REQUIRE Learning? This week, I was fortunate enough to be asked to represent my school district and attend Harvard University to take part in the Instructional Rounds Program presented by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. And now, as I sit on the plane on the way home (via Chicago and Calgary…groan) reflecting on the week, my mind is in a state of both mental exhaustion and tremendous intellectual stimulation in every recollection. The program was incredibly intense: there was no figurative dipping of the toe in the IR pool, but rather an intellectual shove off of a rocky cliff into a frothing ocean with your individual educational values feeling like a set of water wings there to save you. The way to learn the work is to do the work.
And the performance on that work and accountability to that work is predicted by the tasks you are required to do. #whydidntIthinkofthat We worked in groups with teams comprised of members from all over the world. We worked with our own teams. We had no choice.