18 iPad uses: How classrooms are benefiting from Apple's tablets Apple's iPads are quickly becoming a popular and powerful educational tool for classrooms. Beyond the immediate benefit of engaging students, iPads can improve education efficiency and standards. However, many teachers are unsure of how to use them effectively. Coupled with concerns over the costs involved, iPad implementation in schools is seen as an unnecessary and expensive risk. As the case studies below demonstrate, iPads are being used in education environments around the world with great success. Teachers can have paperless classrooms, take attendance, share interactive presentations and test their students—all on their iPad. So just what are they doing? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Similarly, First Words Animals aids with letter and word identification. 18.
Why Teaching Helps Students Learn More Deeply Teaching Strategies Tulane Public Relations/Flickr Learning, and thinking, are deeply social activities. This is not the traditional view (Rodin’s iconic sculpture, “The Thinker,” is conspicuously alone in his chin-on-fist musings), but it’s the view that is emerging out of several decades of social science research. One is the master-apprentice relationship. “Student teachers score higher on tests than pupils who are learning only for their own sake.” Students enlisted to tutor others, these researchers have found, work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately and apply it more effectively. Educators are experimenting with ways to apply this model to academic subjects. Even though users’ interactions with Betty are virtual, the social impulses that make learning-by-teaching so potent still come into play. Feedback from the teachable agents further enhances the tutors’ learning. Related
What can you do with an iPad in the classroom? It’s a tool, it’s a tool, it’s a tool. The iPad is not going to replace teachers or ‘fix’ education. There is a cost implication that must be taken into account and only an educator will know if it is right for their students. Indeed the cost-benefit analysis for an establishment must take into account a host of factors when considering iPad use in the classroom. Assessment for Learning The most valuable weapon in an educators arsenal is feedback. Applications such as eclicker, Socrative and Nearpod have the ability to provide instant feedback for every child in the classroom. Collaboration Setting a collaborative task is a tried and tested technique to allow students to question each other in the pursuit of an answer. Every educator has been left with completed work and no easy means to ensure the student has a copy to refer to in the future. The point is an educator can now set tasks to enhance learning, safe in the knowledge the students have the tools to complete what is required.
Teaching Your Students How to Have a Conversation I was recently in a third grade classroom and was struck by the presence of rules that were posted for how to have a conversation. The poster said, "Each person must contribute to the discussion but take turns talking. Ask each other, 'Would you like to add to my idea?' Having visited many middle and high schools, I think these same rules could -- and probably should -- be posted there as well. Maybe you have also observed how common it is nowadays for students to not know how to have a conversation. 8 Tips for Speaking and Listening While it is impossible to know all of the reasons, there is no doubt that learning to listen and talk is an extremely important way to broaden knowledge, enhance understanding and build community. 1. Make a point of having one-to-two minute interactions, one-on-one, at least a few times each week with students who struggle conversationally. "Really?"" If these students don't or won't share easily at first, don't give up. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Teachers Guide on The Use of ePortfolios in Education Have you ever thought of teaching your students how to create an ePortfolio ? Well if you have not then it is about time to take the idea seriously. There are actually several reasons why you should encourage students to create their own ePortfolios but before we delve into them let me just briefly define what an ePortfolio is. ePortfolio is an electronic journal where one collects evidence of their learning. It is the equivalent of the traditional pen and paper journals where we used to track our learning journey before technology takes over. ePortfolios can either be discipline specific or genrally open to the entire lifelong learning experience. We in education are interested in the first type. The good thing about ePortfolios is that they help students reflect about their own learning.This reflection is a necessary mental process for developing critical thinking. " The e-portfolio is the central .and common point for the student experience.
Believing in Students: The Power to Make a Difference After a morning Discipline With Dignity training, the high school principal and I walked to the cafeteria to eat lunch. He said, "I love your session, but it's not practical." I responded with my view that it was practical because it works -- but it’s just not easy. He pointed to a girl sitting alone at a table and said, "Do you think it would work with her?” She looked like she was a character from the Mad Max movies. So he again asked what I would do. I said, "I'm someone writing a book on teenage violence, and I think you know better about it than me. Her answer is one that I will never forget and has been one of the constants in my work ever since. Because she's stupid. Then she started crying. I ain't going to college and I ain't getting a job. Later I put her name, Roxanne, in my book and tried to find her to give her a copy, but nobody knew where she was or how to find her. Sometime later, I traveled the country doing trainings. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
MuyBlog – The Empty Backpack It’s almost time for school to start again, and when the students walk in I know I’m going to see them lugging backpacks loaded with textbooks, notebooks, trappers, worksheets, pens, pencils, and numerous other things in their bags weighing 10, 20, 30 pounds or more. I, however, envision a much different school. A place with empty backpacks, where everything a student needs is on one device, their iPad. When the first iPad came out a few years ago I was part-time technology coordinator and part-time teacher at the school and we decided to get one to check out. About six months later, I convinced my superintendent that if we were thinking about going one-to-one with iPads, which we had discussed, we should do some type of pilot program to check them out and I would volunteer to do so in my chemistry class. So began my adventure with the iPad in the classroom. There are many things you can do on both, but quite often I prefer to do them on the iPad, such as read.
Brains, Brains, Brains! How the Mind of a Middle Schooler Works In honor of October's most awesome of holidays, I am going to begin a three-part series about the gentlemen zombie's choice of cuisine: the 'tween brain. However, I need to be frank. I'm not going to be able to teach you deeply about the 'tween brain here. I'm not a neurologist. What I am going to do is make an argument, hopefully a darn good one, as to why you should educate yourself further about it. Imagine that this is the CliffNotes of 'tween brain research, but your research should not stop at this because, frankly, the more you know about how they learn, the more you can pass on to them the secrets of how they process and embed knowledge. The following is an edited excerpt from my book on middle schoolers: 'Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers. What are 'tweens most interested in? A. ancient history between the years of 400 BC and 1400 AD B. how to write a literary analysis essay on the theme of Number the Stars D. themselves Answer: D. Tapping into 'Tweens