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Flat Classrooms - Transforming learning through global collaboration

Flat Classrooms - Transforming learning through global collaboration

50 Must-Have Educational Apps It’s time for holiday road trips and you know what that means: driving, flying, cranky kids, and… teaching opportunities! What’s that, you say? Well, there is so much downtime during the holidays where kids and adults spend hours just passing the time… why not try out some new apps on your phone? Many of these apps were found by The Teaching Palette, be sure to check out their fantastic site for more helpful resources! From learning the ABCs to doodling, there’s plenty of terrific apps out there that will pass the time but also educate. *Most of the links below are to the iTunes store which will open another window and/or iTunes. Great Apps For Kids (And Adults) Alphabet Animals Perfect for your talented toddler, this game is packed with colorful animations, animal sounds, and tons of tips for learning their letters. WordSearch Kids Kids search and highlight vocabulary words by tapping the first and last letters. Mad Libs Just as goofy and fun as your remember. SmackTalk Annoying?

Over 100 ideas for using Twitter in the Classroom | Emerging Int This handful of resources provide about 100 different ideas for, and examples of, using Twitter in the classroom. It’s been almost 8 months since I published the post, “6 Examples of Using Twitter in the Classroom”, about uses of the popular micro-blogging tool in the instructional setting. This post generated a lot of traffic, and continues to attract hundreds of viewers every week. Since that brief posting, I’ve come across a lot of articles containing examples and suggestions for using Twitter in instructional applications. I’ve combed through many of these and tried to boil down the redundancies to create a rich set of idea-laden resources. I also want to mention these 100 Serious Twitter Tips for Academics, which are worth reviewing to learn more and plan your approach to using Twitter in (and out of) the classroom. Here are the original “6 Examples” from last June’s post: About Kelly Walsh Print This Post

Global Read Aloud | One Book to Connect the World 4 Ways To Encourage Learning Outside The Classroom The school bell rings and students are practically climbing over one another trying to get out the door; they’re off to spend time on any number of activities, gadgetry, and entertainment. Education has expanded beyond the classroom but it’s often too difficult to encourage your students to spend the extra hour working on their knowledge, let alone convince them it’s just as rewarding as spending their time on Facebook and video games. Students want to relax and have fun (like all of us) when they’re not in class but there are clever ways to get students excited about learning in their off hours. Here are four suggestions and experiments to try with your students: After-school clubs Clubs are a great place for students to make new friends and spend time discussing & participating in one of their many interests. A few ways a teacher could become part of the club (or at least get the students to add in a learning element) would to host and promote the clubs throughout their school. Startups

Global Students- Global Perspectives Projects | Langwitches Blog I am pleased to share with you an opportunity for Middle School Students to collaborate on a global perspectives project. Mark Engstrom, the Assistant Principal and Middle School Geography teacher at my new school in São Paulo, Brazil, and his collaboration partner, Laurie Clement, a MS teacher in Windsor, Canada, have put together various projects to connect middle school geography students from around the world and to facilitate collaboration among them. This past school year, our students in Brazil worked together with students from Canada, USA and Sweden. Take a look at the outline of the project below and get directly in contact with one of the Program Coordinators: Mark Engstrom Graded School Sao Paulo, Brazil via Twitter (@markaengstrom) email mark.engstrom@graded.br Laurie Clement St. Purpose: To facilitate student growth within a global environment. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Students are encouraged to use knowledge, facts and data to effectively problem solve. Related

iOS App Development Tutorial for Beginners | Udemy Infinite Skills have a wide range of tutorials covering all the popular applications and programming languages. A full list of courses complete with free demos can be seen here on the Infinite Skills Web Site About This Tutorial In this iOS app development tutorial, you will learn how to create apps for iPhone and iPad devices. Expert trainer and published author Tony Bove introduces you to using the iOS Software Development Kit (SDK) and Xcode to build apps for the iPhone, iPad and Universal apps. Even if you have never programmed before or built apps before, by the end of this iOS app development tutorial you will be fully capable of building apps and submitting them to the App Store. Before you even start building an app, Tony takes you through what makes a good app, and the limitations you will face on the iPhone and iPad platforms. Please Note:-

International Calendar 2014 | Returned Peace Corps Volunteers International Calendar KidDIY: 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to shape future of innovation The New York Hall of Science is hidden away in the Corona corner of Queens, N.Y., a primarily Hispanic neighborhood below the city's 7 subway line. Pupuserias and bodegas line pedestrian-filled 111th Street as it leads to the open swath of land occupied by the hall, making the sudden appearance of Cold War-era space rockets all the more jarring -- they jut into the sky, taking advantage of Queens' lack of skyscrapers. Not that 50-year-old rockets are at home anywhere in New York City, but they serve as a fitting backdrop for the day's event: the culmination of the 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge. The challenge aims to enable America's youth of today to become tomorrow's innovation leaders. In so many words, the US government is hoping these kids won't just go on to create the next big shooter franchise, but, say, the next iPod. After running the lesson, the workshop broke into groups -- game jam-style -- where kids either hashed out ideas for games, put them together or both.

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