The Art of Teaching Science If only teaching K-12 science was itself a science – assess student knowledge deficits and remedy them. This “knowledge deficit” model has been shown ineffective time and again. Most teachers already know that; it’s why they work so hard to develop lesson plans and activities tailored to their students. So here’s a new tool for any teacher who’s spent evenings and weekends trying to find a lesson that’s the perfect fit for their class: it’s called MOSART, brought to you by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Teachers know that students don’t arrive in class as blank slates, and research on students’ prior knowledge in a variety of subjects is available in the academic literature. MOSART’s multiple choice tests offer five options that are each based on cognitive science: “many items require a choice between accepted scientific concepts and misconceptions that have been well documented in the science education literature.”
Exploratory Learning: A Toolkit to Turn Elementary School Kids Into 'Neighborhood Detectives' | Education on GOOD As Neighbor Day approaches, we here at GOOD would like to suggest that kids take a break from all that in-class activity and explore the world right outside their door. In collaboration with two wonderful first grade teachers, we’ve put together this terrific tool kit: the projects within it demonstrate that, for elementary school kids in particular, there are a million things to learn and discover while taking a walk around the block. The Neighborhood Tool Kit takes its inspiration from Ms. The ideas and projects here are meant to inspire (and we think they can be a valuable addition to curriculum). Neighborhood Study Toolkit For the past several months, the first grade class at Children’s Day School, located in San Francisco’s Mission District, has been exploring their neighborhoods. The neighborhood study is based on the premise that first-hand experiences are the most dynamic and generative types of learning for children at this age. Assignment #1: ~ What is a map? Assignment #2: A. B.
My Edmodo Journey | SteveColebourne I decided early this year to try using Edmodo with a class. I had met three VLEs during my PGCE, and I considered Edmodo to be the best fit for what I wanted. Edmodo, in my opinion, is nearly perfect for use in the classroom. It’s free, is easy to set up, and easy to use. The students can use it intuitively, as can staff. I gathered support from management and from colleagues and we decided to try a couple of terms initially, with my Year 10 Higher Maths group. My first worry was that I wouldn’t get a critical mass of students that were interested and the experiment would fail before it had even started. Over the course of the year, Edmodo has supported us to: Based on that list, I would say that my experiment has been a success, and I am pleased with the different ways in which we have used Edmodo, but that list doesn’t tell the whole story. From Christmas onwards, we had two 5-week terms, and I found that these terms passed me by before I had even noticed they’d taken place.
How To Use Google Drive and Evernote To Create Digital Portfolios The following post is written by Greg Kulowiec & Beth Holland from EdTechTeacher. You can hear them both present at the April 10-12 EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in Atlanta! As iPads proliferate in schools around the world, and students as well as teachers create more and more content, questions about what to do with all of those learning objects have arisen. In other words, how can we curate this content into portfolios for assessment as well as reflection. Portfolio Curation with Google Drive Source: The Verge With recent upgrades to the Google Drive app on the iPad, it is now a viable solution for student portfolios that can be created in their entirety on iPad. The Google Drive app now allows for the creation of Documents, Spreadsheets, and Folders. The video tutorial below explains the process of creating, uploading and sharing within the Google Drive app on an iPad. Using Portfolios to Make Connections with Evernote Evernote provides one possible solution to the challenge.
iPads in the classroom: embedding technology in the primary curriculum | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional Last year David Andrews wrote for us about how he was using one-to-one devices in the classroom in the hugely popular blog post: An Apple for the teacher: are iPads the future in class? Here, he updates us on his progress and shares some of his favourite technology-led learning ideas. Since the start of September 2012 myself and a colleague, Chris Williams, have been trying to maximise the use of handheld technology (iPads and iPods) in year 6 in all areas of the curriculum. The potential for enhancing teaching and learning through technology has been particularly interesting: we've developed a range of apps using both iPads and iPods to engage, motivate and inspire pupils' learning in the classroom. The school's 'Apple journey' began in June 2012. Once the year 6 SATs were finished, we gave both our year 6 classes a two-week project to build a controllable vehicle. Allowing the children to work in this manner shifted the learning from teacher-centred to child-centred.
10 Free Typing Practice Activities for Students This afternoon I received an email from a reader who was looking for some typing games that her elementary school students can play to practice their touch typing skills. I've reviewed a lot of online typing practice activities over the years, but it has been more than a year since I updated my list. So this evening I put together an updated list of online typing practice activities for students. Type Rocket is a free typing game from ABCya. Z-Type is a simple and fun typing game. If you want students to take a break from the games, have them use Typing Speed Monitor for Google Chrome. Typing Adventure is a nice little game that young students can use to practice their typing skills. Good Typing is a free online typing skill development program. Dance Mat Typing is a nice little resource from the BBC. Word Games offers a large collection of online word games and typing games. Typing Web is an online typing tutorial that provides instant feedback after every free typing lesson.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: The 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher should Have By EdTech Team Updated on march 2, 2015 : The original list that was created in 2011 comprised 33 skills , after reviewing it we decided to do some merging and finally ended up with the 20 skills below. The 21st century teacher should be able to : 1- Create and edit digital audio Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Free Audio Tools for Teachers 2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers 3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class 4- Exploit digital images for classroom use Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Web Tools to Edit Pictures without Installing any softwareTools to Convert Photos into Cartoons
Digitally Interfaced Book: Paper, Graphite, Makey Makey, Scratch, and Imagination As a professional artist, deepening the ways in which seemingly disparate objects and processes are interconnected through locating, and mapping their intersections has been one of the main elements of my studio practice. The Fab Lab tools and working processes create an environment that is well suited to investigating those types of intersections. In an effort to integrate Fab Lab tools centered on craft, and studio-based processes into the classroom, I have been working to implement a Mobile MakerCart at a project-based K-8 charter school. In addition to introducing craft-based physical computing projects to the children, a guiding principle behind the MakerCart is to give teachers the opportunity to develop familiarity with the MakerCart’s tools and processes in order to be able to envision the ways in which they might be able to develop their own curriculum for use in the classroom. Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig.3 Fig. 4 1.1 Fold The Paper Fig. 5 1.2 Create Your Story Fig. 6 1.3 Build The Circuit Fig. 7
Casllwchwr:Week 2 | ipadshare Well, we are into Week 2 and I have to say that the opportunities the individual iPads have allowed for my whole class have been endless. I have begun training my digital leaders for my new class. (In my own mind, they are all digital leaders as they teach me things daily: being natural investigators. This is what a 21st Century teacher needs to accept. We are going to learn WITH the children – and they WILL lead the learning- which is how it should be.) Homework went out on Monday and I chose 4 children. SHOW me is a free app on the iPad. Last year, I aimed to get all of my class using ShowMe, to explain new strategies and the homework. This week has also allowed me to have fun with my new class. If you are interested in hearing their FUN raps- the link to our class blog is below! Like this: Like Loading...
Cryptocat - Create Encrypted Backchannels Cryptocat is an open source project that allows users to create private encrypted chat rooms. Cryptocat can be installed in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or as Mac desktop application. After installing Cryptocat open the application, enter a room name and username, then click connect. To have others join you in your chat room they have to know and enter the encryption key provided by Cryptocat. For those of you who get that nostalgic feeling when you see old 8 bit graphics, Cryptocat will make you feel like a kid again. Applications for Education I often talk about using TodaysMeet for backchanneling in the classroom (I featured TodaysMeet in this free PDF about classroom backchannels).
How Much Are iPads Really Helping Kids in the Classroom? The drive to increase technology use in classrooms has many asking whether the investment is more fizzle than bang, and whether it’s too early to tell how wisely the money is being spent. Education author Peg Tyre has investigated the use of iPads, one of the most popular classroom additions, in TakePart. She concludes that iPads in education may offer some new teaching techniques, but by themselves, they may not be better than traditional, cheaper methods. The classroom used to be about chalkboards, textbooks, teachers speaking directly to groups of kids, and worksheets. The iPad can take any of these roles: but in which role is it most effective? When iPads replace textbooks, they are perhaps least effective. Substituting for the teacher may be among the iPad’s most effective roles. Tyre explains that there are other ways the iPads in schools can fill part of the teacher’s role: Tyre reports that investment in education technology has soared in recent years.