21 signs you’re a 21st century teacher « Brave new world Yes, the phrase (is it a definition?) 21st century teacher has been bandied about and annoys some people, but whatever you want to call it, shouldn’t we all, as educators, use this checklist to check our relevance? Or at the very least, we could evaluate these checkpoints to determine whether we judge them to be important in the scheme of our work as educators. As a teacher librarian I can only do these things if I find a willing teacher with a class. Not much you can do without a class – a one-off lesson doesn’t make a great deal of difference. Your students work on collaborative projects…with students in Finland/USA.You share lesson plans with your teacher friends…from around the globe. Some of these have given me ideas - You give weekly class updates to parents…via your blog (I have documented class activity in blogs, but haven’t gone the step further to sharing with parents. The last point: You tweet this page, blog about it, “like” it, or email it to someone else… What about you?
EdTech Xpress - Tech Tips and Talk for Educators Pictureka-like Activity w/Web 2.0 By Brian ThomasJune 29th, 2011 8:28 am If you’re a board game player (raise your hands), then you most likely have played Pictureka before. This game challenges players to take a very busy image and find parts, pieces, items, and people in a race against time and each other. This site also gave me the bright idea to marry two of my favorite things together….board games and web apps. Conceptboard can do so much more too! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5-7. The teaching strategy here is called Visual Discovery. Web tools abound like grass, or weeds depending on your perspective. Comments comments
Contemplation for Education | Considering Research to Guide Decisions in the Classroom Expat Educator Example of Student Electronic Portfolio Home Page (with the student name covered) I do my best to teach paperless. One of the disadvantages of less paper is that parents don’t see much of the work students do in class. Electronic portfolios virtually eliminate the parent question: What is my child doing in school? But electronic portfolios have value beyond parent communication, as Jessie Chuang explains in her Educemic post. This post has two purposes: Present a model you can use for your own students’ portfolios. Homepage For a number of years, I struggled with this opening page. Other students attached widgets such as fish bowls or basketball games. The purpose of the portfolio is to present “professional” work. Wordle provides a great way for students to share their personalities without sharing personal information. Student Writing In the past, students copied and pasted their final drafts to individual pages. First, students attach images of their outlines and their rough drafts.
Edutech for Teachers What Makes Project Based Learning Effective? #Edchat #EngChat I've been meaning to write about my adventures in Project Based Learning for a while. It's a topic many teachers are interested in, but are unsure of how to implement it or know if it is working. After much thought, I have broken down Project Based Learning into the 5 parts that make it effective in the classroom. Long before my Epic Romeo and Juliet Project, the first major project I created was during my student teaching 10 years ago. As I look back at the project (and ahead as I prepare to bring it back), I notice all of the things that made this project work that lead to deep understanding. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Next week, my students will be creating their own Transcendentalist Society. If you have any thoughts on bringing PBL to your classroom, please do not hesitate to contact me. - @TheNerdyTeacher
Teacher Reboot Camp 12 Tech Tools That Will Transform The Way You Teach! In a Simple K12 blog post titled “17 Signs Your Classroom is Behind the Times” they provide a list of things that characterize a classroom that has fallen behind. Number 16 lists a variety of technology tools that every educator should know about. As I read the list, I realized that although many teachers are interested in and excited about technology integration, they are too busy to explore all the new technology tools available online. This blog post is dedicated to all of the overworked teachers who just don’t have the time to seek out this information. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. [Note: StoryJumper is another online digital storybook maker worth checking out!] 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
The Adventures of Library Girl Exquisite Corpse 2.0: 4 Apps for Collaborative Story Writing As a child, I was a huge fan of a collaborative story writing game that I later learned was also a favorite of the Surrealists. The gist of the "exquisite corpse" game: write a sentence on a piece of paper. Fold the paper so that only the last word or phrase can be seen, and pass the paper around in a circle. Folding Story Folding Story is a website that lets you read, create, or contribute to these collaborative stories. Exquisite Corpse: A Poetry Game Exquisite Corpse is another web-based app based on collaborative poetry-writing. Exquisite Corpse Project The Exquisite Corpse Project recently ran an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, but I like this idea a lot (in part because I've toyed with the idea of building the same sort of thing). Google Docs None of the apps described above are necessarily ideal for a classroom setting. Why Exquisite Corpse? The Surrealists argued that a game like exquisite corpse tapped into the power of collective creativity.
Social Media Resources 101 for the School Librarian Image by Vladgrin/Thinkstock. Earlier this month, I wrote an article about what school librarians can learn about social media strategies from the success of this year’s World Book Night. Following up on that article, I thought it might be helpful to discuss several additional resources that are critical for understanding social media practices in librarianship. Below I’ve compiled a list of some of the most helpful social media resources available for school librarians. American Association of School Librarians (AASL) The AASL has put together an extensive repository of webcasts, podcasts and resources it refers to as eCOLLAB: Your eLearning Laboratory. “Social Networking and the School Librarian” presented by Steve Baule, provides participants with an overview of how to integrate social networking tools into both the library’s teaching, learning, and communication programs. Teacher Librarian Virtual Café (TL Virtual Café or #TLChat) Kathy Schrock Guide to Everything: Twitter for Teachers