Free Technology for Teachers Teaching My Calling The Techie Teacher iLearn Technology – Integrating technology in the classroom 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning | K12 educational transformation through technology Common Core: Reading, Understanding & Analyzing Complex Texts *ISTE Workshop: Transitioning to the Common Core with Google Apps – Join me! In my previous post “Common Core: What is a ‘complex text’ anyway?” I wrote about the three aspects of a text that the Common Core measures to determine its “complexity,” which include: 1) quantitative, 2) qualitative, 3) reader and task. Hopefully, that post helped to clarify how we as educators can evaluate the complexity of a text we are using with our students. This blog will focus on ways we can support students in reading, understanding and analyzing those texts. The individual standards for each grade level vary and the standards themselves act like a staircase. * Reading Literature Standards. Annotations Each year, I have students enter my room who claim to hate reading. Annotations are not a new strategy, but few, if any, of my incoming 9th grade students have ever been taught how to annotate. Highlighting tips: Annotation shorthand: ? Making notes in the margin: Digital Annotations
We Don't Like "Projects" So I recently quit my job and started my own school with the support of a local media company, the second largest school district in Iowa, and a groundswell of community interest. Our philosophy boils down to a fairly liberal project-based learning environment. As I began the marketing push to enroll students, I uncovered some frankly stunning assumptions that many students have about learning: The word "project" is not a happy word. When I say project-based learning, most students grimace as they imagine prescribed PowerPoints.If a teacher doesn't plan it, it's not learning.If there isn't a test, it wasn't real.Their personal interests cannot inform their learning. Learning is sterile, and the actual usage of the word "learning," to them, is quite different from what a professional might consider learning. I'm not complaining -- in fact, these assumptions are the reason that I struck out on my own in the first place -- but I was flat-out surprised by their ubiquity. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Infographic: Blended Learning From the Ground Up In February, we released the Blended Learning Implementation Guide paper and How to Implement Blended Learning infographic as one of the projects in the DLN Smart Series. This summer we’re working with Digital Learning Now! to bundle the series as a ebook that will include updated versions of all eight papers. Working with Scott Ellis and The Learning Accelerator, we created the first version of the Blended Learning Implementation Guide so schools and districts could kick the tires, put the guide to work in the field, and share their feedback — so we could make version 2.0 an even more useful tool. To whet your appetite for the next iteration of the guide, we created another infographic that organizes the implementation process – “Blended Learning From the Ground Up.” We’d love to hear your thoughts on the first draft of the guide and our two implementation infographics. Disclosure: Digital Learning Now!
The Teacher's Guide To Flipped Classrooms Since Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams first experimented with the idea in their Colorado classrooms in 2004, flipped learning has exploded onto the larger educational scene. It’s been one of the hottest topics in education for several years running and doesn’t seem to be losing steam. Basically, it all started when Bergman and Sams first came across a technology that makes it easy to record videos. They had a lot of students that regularly missed class and saw an opportunity to make sure that missing class didn’t mean missing out on the lessons. Once students had the option of reviewing the lessons at home, the teachers quickly realized the shift opened up additional time in class for more productive, interactive activities than the lectures they’d been giving. And voila: a movement began. A 2014 survey from the Flipped Learning network found that 78% of teachers said they’d flipped a lesson, and 96% of those that tried it said they’d recommend it. What is a flipped classroom? 1. 2. 3. 1.
Psychologists Identify the Best Ways to Study Education generally focuses on what you study, such as algebra, the elements of the periodic table or how to conjugate verbs. But learning how to study can be just as important, with lifelong benefits. It can teach you to pick up knowledge faster and more efficiently and allow you to retain information for years rather than days. Cognitive and educational psychologists have developed and evaluated numerous techniques, ranging from rereading to summarizing to self-testing, for more than 100 years. Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content
Exploring YouTube's education channels Teachers are posting their lessons online in fun educational videos that draw-in tech-savvy kids who love multimedia. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports. YouTube is usually associated with the latest viral video, but now growing numbers of people are turning to the video-sharing website for education instead of entertainment. Teachers are broadcasting lessons online, everything from biology to foreign languages -- and for some, this online "classroom" is more inspiring than the confines of brick and mortar. Below, check out some of the most popular channels on YouTube EDU. Steve SpanglerYouTube was only five months old when this former teacher first taught viewers how to turn a bottle of Diet Coke and a roll of Mentos into an exploding geyser. Rob TarrouWhat started off as a way to help students at St. Alex DainisAlex Dainis is "a biology nerd, music lover, film geek.” Paul AndersonPaul Anderson started creating videos for the students in his class several years ago.
tpsi21 / TopTechTools Top Tech Tools | Mobile Resources | Teacher Toolbox | The Inquiry Process TPSI21 Home This section of the TPSI21 wiki will be used to explore various technology tools that can be integrated into teaching and learning with primary sources. All of the tools are Web-based and free for educators to use. Click on the name of the tool in the list below to navigate to a page with: a description of the toolbasic instructions for usesuggested ways to integrate the tool with: inquiry learning21st century skillsliteracy toolsan example of how the tool could be used to teach with primary sourcesa list of similar tools Before exploring the tools listed below, please review the article Technology Integration: Linking the Learner to Learning in the Teaching with Primary Sources Spring 2009 Newletter. For a quick reference to how tools relate to Blooms Taxonomy which is interactive click on this link! Other helpful tools:
The five most powerful ways teachers aren’t using Google Drive (yet) Google Drive—formerly named Google Docs—is Google’s online productivity suite. It’s long been a popular choice for collaborative writing and editing of documents, especially among teachers and students, so I won’t dwell on the excellent collaboration features others have written about at length for years. More recently, Google added cloud storage space similar to what Dropbox offers. If you use any of Google’s products like Gmail or Calendar, you already have access to at least 15 GB of file storage space on Google Drive. Google launches new features and add-ins all the time, so if you’re still interacting with Google Drive exactly the same way you did in 2010 in the early Google Docs days, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. 1. The Google Drive team recently launched a document scanner feature for its Android app, and presumably, iOS will follow shortly. 2. 3. 4. Google Drive is a productivity suite which includes many built-in apps. 5. What other ways do you use Google Drive?