Tools for Professional Learning: Curate, Share, Connect

For six years, I taught in a basement classroom with no windows, and yet I could see what was happening around the world thanks to the Internet. Though I tried learning something new each day, until I put systems in place, I spent more time searching for materials than actually learning. I realized that to effectively engage in professional learning, I needed tools in place to curate content, save what I found, and connect to other educators. Curating Content Initially, reading and learning was easy. NetNewsWire (Mac Only) When I first installed this program, my reading world exploded. Flipboard (iOS or Android) Sadly, Google Reader went defunct. Feedly (web, iOS, or Android) While I personally don't use Feedly very often, I like to find tools that work across all devices. Save, Search, and Share With my curation tools in place, I ran into three more problems. Once I found a great link, what would I do with it? Solution: social bookmarking. Diigo (web, iOS, or Android)

Cyber-Five Internet Safety ABCya is the leader in free educational computer games and mobile apps for kids. The innovation of a grade school teacher, ABCya is an award-winning destination for elementary students that offers hundreds of fun, engaging learning activities. Millions of kids, parents, and teachers visit ABCya.com each month, playing over 1 billion games last year. Apple, The New York Times, USA Today, Parents Magazine and Scholastic, to name just a few, have featured ABCya’s popular educational games. ABCya’s award-winning Preschool computer games and apps are conceived and realized under the direction of a certified technology education teacher, and have been trusted by parents and teachers for ten years. Our educational games are easy to use and classroom friendly, with a focus on the alphabet, numbers, shapes, storybooks, art, music, holidays and much more!

Ideas for planning Small Group Instruction | TWO WRITING TEACHERS Ideas for planning Small Group Instruction Small Group Instruction At this point in the year, many of us have gotten a sense of our students as writers, and we can begin to see common strengths and growth opportunities. It’s a time when small group instruction becomes an effective tool for maximizing instruction since minutes are precious. Small group instruction is highly effective when a group of students will all benefit from instruction on a specific skill. Students can be brought together while the rest of the class is working independently, and the teacher should be clear about the reason for bringing them together. A question I frequently encounter is around how to form groups. Some ways to form groups: Do a quick sort of student writing and ask yourself what teaching point would help these students? I like to create categories which may be revised over the course of the year as students grow and genres change. 2. This is only the beginning of a list. 3. Like this: Like Loading...

32 Augmented Reality Apps for the Classroom by edshelf: Reviews & recommendations of tools for education Augmented Reality (AR) is a growing field of technology where real life is modified and enhanced by computer-generated sights and sounds. The most common use of AR can be seen through mobile apps. Point your device’s camera at something that the app recognizes, and it will generated a 3D animation or video superimposed over whatever is on your camera’s screen. Want to see how it works? App developers are building AR apps for fun, educational, and commercial uses. Which augmented reality apps do you use? 32 Augmented Reality Apps for the Classroom From edshelf Image attribution flickr user turkletom How Augmented Reality (AR) Can Be Great for Math Class: Learning Goals Photo by turkletom / CC BY As you may be aware from some of my recent Tweets, I had the pleasure of presenting at the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit – Boston over the past few days. Overall, it was one of the best professional development experiences I have had the pleasure of taking part in. There were so many great sessions that I hope to blog about soon, but I think I’ll start with the session that gave me inspiration to implement the idea in my own classroom immediately upon returning home. Spectral Learning – Augmented Reality from A to Z – Why AR is the Next Big Game Changer in Ed Tech Facilitator: Courtney Pepe Session Descriptor: This presentation will explore the role that Augmented Reality apps play in making the 21st century digital classroom a wicked awesome place to teach and learn. Although I had heard about the Augmented Reality/AR-Buzz going on in education right now, I really didn’t have any interest in attending such a session before arriving at the conference. Like this:

Designs for Learning Free ebooks by Project Gutenberg - Gutenberg 15 Games To Teach Kids About Social Issues - EasyBib Blog Incorporating games into the classroom is a great way to engage students and increase motivation. But how can social studies and history teachers use games to help students better understand social issues? Our guest contributor and expert on game-based learning, Dr. Matthew Farber, shares his favorite tools: Social impact games are a genre that seek to effect positive changes in society through play. As a social studies teacher, I have found that they are effective in putting students in authentic situations in which difficult problems get engaged. And — like any media you bring to students — preview first to check for age appropriateness. Be sure to assess learning by asking your students about the decisions they made, as well as the reasons behind it! Here are some of my favorite social impact games that I use with students (listed alphabetically, not ranked). 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (paid; iPad/PC/Mac) 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is a documentary-style, narrative.

Gamestar Mechanic The Jigsaw Classroom Welcome :: CheckiO Movenote