Advice for First-Year Teachers Advice for First-Year Teachers From the 'Sophomores' Who Survived Last Year Education World asked the "sophomores" who faced -- and survived -- that dreaded first year to reflect on their successes and failures. 20 Must-See Teaching Tools Coming To Your Classroom Very Soon It’s hard to find a field that hasn’t been radically changed by technology, and education is no exception. Few classrooms these days operate without digital tools, gadgets, or applications that have made it easier for teachers to track student progress and tailor lessons to student needs and interests. While the tools of today are great, there are even more great technological teaching tools and practices on the horizon, many of which are just starting to be adopted in the classroom or are just making it out of the developmental stages. These tools offer new and often very promising ways to connect with students and improve the quality of education offered in schools. Read on to learn about just a few of the websites, programs, and amazing technologies of the future teachers and students alike will soon be using. (Click the title of each tool to visit their respective website)
What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n Advice? First-year teachers had a lot of it to offer to new teachers who follow them. Their tips ran the gamut—from memorizing students' names right away to making peace with the realization that some children cannot be reached. Lessons by Mathalicious Key Board How do you create simple video games? Students apply geometric transformations to build (and play) their own games. Topic: Congruence (CO), Geometry (G) Top 10 Ways to Wake-up Students in Class - SimpleK12 The following is a guest post from Michelle Doman, a 7th and 8th grade Language Arts teacher at Brandon Middle School in Wisconsin. Top 10 Ways to Wake-up Students in Class Many people get a little squeamish, wiggly, and offer a scrunched expression when I respond to the question, “What grades do you teach?” I teach middle school, and with heart and honesty, I find great joys (and challenges) in teaching the group referred to as “tweens” and adolescents. So, I invite you into the quirky world of middle school. Do not fear…you will become comfortable in a beanbag, find a new young-at-heart-love-for reading air, and (at times chuckle) as I give you a sneak-peek into the crevices (oh, look out for that dirty sock) of the teenage minds.
10 Important Skills Students need for the Future The future. What do our students really need to know and be able to do to succeed in future education and careers? Content is a part of what they need to know. Mystery Cube The Mystery Cube interactive has been changed to a new format: the Cube Creator. Summarizing information is an important postreading and prewriting activity that helps students synthesize what they have learned. The interactive Cube Creator offers four options: Bio Cube: This option allows students to develop an outline of a person whose biography or autobiography they have just read; it can also be used before students write their own autobiography. Specific prompts ask students to describe a person's significance, background, and personality.
Tools Bill, My wife and I are currently assisting the Amphitheater School District with the training of their teachers from grade K to 6 on the Common Core Standards. We would love to have links in our PowerPoint presentations and PDF files (both of which we give to the teachers attending our classes) that went directly to a portion of the text or an illustration that we would like to provide as part of our lesson. For example, teachers have a hard time understanding the division of a fraction by a fraction. The 6.NS Traffic Jam illustration provides an excellent means of giving teachers some intuition about the division of fractions. The problem is that I see no way to link to this illustration directly, or any text with the illustrations. Are there any plans to provide links.
Google for Education Resources Google for Education Resources Why and How to Use Google in Education: Free (or really cheap for Apps for Education compared to Microsoft) and less IT support needed. Also runs better on older computers. I recommend using Chrome browser too. Easy to use - students and teachers probably use some of it already All work together - all the apps work together and have similar menus and functions Cloud based - backed up on Google’s servers, accessible from any computer and mobile device, runs fast, no lost flash drives or corrupted drives. Games Summary Games of chance hold an honored place in probability theory, because of their conceptual clarity and because of their fundamental influence on the early development of the subject. In this chapter, we explore some of the most common and basic games of chance. Roulette, craps, and Keno are casino games.
Resources to Replace Textbooks "Beyond Textbooks" is a well used mantra by educational technology companies and districts who are moving away from traditional print textbooks to digital media and resources. I don't use a textbook with my Physics classes for many reasons: the textbooks are old and outdated (but in good physical condition), the textbooks are hard to read, they are heavy, and they don't have any way to get help or expand on the material. I use a variety of materials with my Physics classes in place of the textbooks. I use Blogger and Google Sites to create a class blog and class website. The blog is where I post assignments, information, reminders, and more and the site has links, downloads, and other information.
Great Math Links Why Use Technology in the Classroom? Technology, when used appropriately, can help make science classroom a site of active learning and critical thinking, furthering student inquiry and connections with the materials. Teachers can use technology to enable students to explore fundamental curriculum issues and answer core questions. Students can use the Internet, electronic databases, applets and other online sources to gather information. They can use spreadsheets, virtual labs, and other programs to store, organize, and analyze information. Students can also integrate multimedia desktop publishing, web publishing, video and audio editing, as well as graphics programs to create and present information in innovative and engaging ways.